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I see no flaws in this plan. [nephero!]

Started by Rhindeer, May 06, 2014, 03:04:23 PM

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Rhindeer

"Oh, no, no, no!" Mei said, waving her hands. "We don't reject it! That is, we reject the magic, yes, but not the elements! The earth is holy. Nature is holy. It is all Inima's creation. To tamper with that, to meddle with the forces Inima so perfectly set into motion..." She clicked her tongue. "That's like saying you don't trust Her to know what She's doing. That you can do better than Her. Pure hubris, basically."

She folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head, fingers tapping her arm. "Besides, from a practical outlook, it's dangerous. Mages throwing fire around and all that. That's just madness! It's really not a good idea to tamper with the natural order of things, even if it might have a positive short-term outcome. You just have no way of knowing what the long-term could be!"

And then, realizing how doom and gloom all that sounded--especially after he had told her how his ice box worked, and that it required water-based magic--she cleared her throat. "Um, I still think your ice box is amazing, though!"
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nephero

Oh, well now that made far more sense. He pursed his lips together, still not quite sure about the sense involved in rejecting any kind of magic, but again, he followed quite a different sort of god. He gave a little snort, and smiled up at her from where he crouched.

"I think if I had to have a sin, pride would be it."

He rose to his feet after gathering a few more vegetables, those gathered up in the folds of the short apron he wore to work with. When he reached where Mei was standing, he lifted his hand to her face, and rubbed at the smudge of charcoal there to clean it off. The motion was such that it was like he didn't even know he was necessarily doing it, and he continued on his way back into the house with their (disappointingly) bloodless ingredients.

"I'll admit I don't have very much experience with someone admiring the work behind something that goes against their beliefs. So thank you for the kind words and not burning my house down." He laughed at the joke, morbid as it was, and set out the vegetables on his counterspace once they were back inside.

No meat. Excess of earth and water. It was okay, he could do this. He'd just have to up the spice this time. He looked over at Mei, and forced a smile.

"Alright, little inquisitor. What are we eating?"


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

Shea touched her chin, and Mei's heart fluttered. She wasn't aware of the smears on her skin, so to her, the action seemed extra random--and extra delightful. But then he was gone, heading past her and into the house, and after a moment's pause (because her brain may have just blanked out a little there) she trotted after him.

"You're...welcome? I think? Why would I burn your house down?" Mei asked, face scrunched up at the quip. She took her place at his side and looked the assortment of veggies over as she spoke.

"Is that...is that a thing that happens here? Burning the homes of people you disagree with? I suppose that's an excellent way to keep competition to a minimum and ignorance to a maximum, but hmm, no, considering your people chased my people off the continent and onto an island..."

Her head snapped up and her laugh was a bit too forced. "O-oh! Ahaha! Not literally your people! I don't blame you! And that was a long time ago, anyway! I just mean to say no! No burning! Except where it concerns food, and only if it needs to be burned, which...this doesn't! Speaking of which, here, allow me! Just stand pretty and I'll figure it out."

Scooting in, Mei hip-checked Shea out of the way and began to browse through his cupboards, pulling out items and looking them over. "I'm going to guess you don't keep rice? I swear, no one here does! Granted, it's so dry I don't think you could, but I could really use some now! Ah! It looks like you keep decent spices, at least! Do you mind spicy? In my experience the local palate is quite bland, and I like my food rather hot, but I can dull down your portion if that's an issue."
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nephero

"Not here, here. This town is actually rather lovely. Perfectly keen to mind its own business. There are... places, though." His mouth turned down into a scowling "c" shape, lips curled to bare his teeth as he stared off at some point on the far wall. For a few excruciating moments, he was perfectly silent, until he seemed to come back to himself. He shook his head then, and pushed out a smile that didn't reach his eye. "Given, things might have changed since I last was in those places. It could be very tolerant, these days."

His smile became far easier and sincere, however, as Mei tried to backtrack in her words, and he gave another wave of his hand to dismiss the imagined slight. "I think I've come to understand that you don't mean to place blame on me, though we both must admit it not being specifically my fault,"

(unlike a lot of other things)

"doesn't negate the fact it happened. But duly noted, your people don't burn other people."

Shea wasn't expecting to be bumped out of the way, and had to grab onto the countertop to keep from toppling over, which was in and of itself hilarious considering their size difference. After the moment of startling passed, he just looked amused, and wholeheartedly accepted the invitation to slack off.  With a quick hop, he was up on the counter, sitting at the far corner so that he might be out of the way.

"I adore spicy. In fact, considering the base ingredients, I'd wager the hotter the better."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

Mei couldn't help but laugh when Shea stumbled, surprised. He was so much taller, she hadn't expected him to be so light!

"Goodness. You need to eat more!" she said with a grin as she rummaged through his things in search of a pot. Finding one, she blew some dust out of it and then set it on the counter. "But duly noted, you like spicy food. Excellent! We should get along just splendidly, then!"

Turning to his ice box, she opened the cupboard and pulled out the milk, then gave it a sniff to make sure it was still good.

"Hm. Usually this dish uses coconut milk, but cow milk might be an okay substitute. I suppose we'll find out! Of course, it also requires a lot of other vegetables you don't have, so...this will be one big experiment! Hopefully I'm not about to embarrass myself. Oh, and as it turns out, before you get too comfy there," she said, looking up at him where he was perched on  the counter, "I'm going to need your assistance after all. I'll need some water to rinse the vegetables, unless you want the extra minerals and grit, and if you could get a fire going, that would be great! Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not quite used to your set-up here."

As she talked, she grabbed the spices she wanted. "It's probably too much to ask that you have ginger, too, isn't it?"
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nephero

"I assure you I receive just the amount of nutrition I require," he spouted off almost instantly, as if he had heard much the same many times before. Still, he didn't seem insulted, and rather continued to grin from his perch.

"I'm not so sure," he teased, his amusement growing by the second, "how do I know this experiment of yours won't result in extra limbs, or something? Actually, that would be kind of funny."

Shea didn't have much more time to annoy her once she requested water and fire. For a moment, he looked unsure, before his inner debate was summarily decided and he hopped off of the counter again. He strode to the side and where his hearth stood, bent low, and breathed out onto the cold coals, sparking them to life with a low woosh.

The fire dealt with, he returned to the countertop and spread out the vegetables until there was as little overlap as possible. Once they were, he held them in place with one hand, and cupped his other. With just a blink of an eye, that was filled with water, which he turned and swept across the vegetables like a brush. With every pass the gathered water grew dirtier, and he flicked the ruined mud to the floor before continuing on.

"There's actually ginger on the top shelf, far right cupboard. Usually I end up handing it off for nausea."


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Rhindeer

As Shea quite literally worked his magic, Mei watched, enraptured. It was true that elemental magic was taboo where she came from, and in fact went against her very core beliefs, but that didn't mean she couldn't still find it fascinating, right? Kind of in the same way as how it was fascinating to watch a snake swallow a mouse. It was terrible, but it was also interesting. Though she supposed that wasn't a valid comparison; the snake was only doing what it was created to do, while tampering with nature went against nature.

And in watching the ease with which Shea stoked the fire and cleaned the veggies, she could see how tempting that kind of magic could be. How easy it would be to slip into it, to use it for such mundane purposes before it escalated.

But there was nothing wrong with observation, and--oh. Ew. Did he just...? He did. He just tossed all the mud to the floor.

Wrinkling her nose, Mei looked back up at Shea. "The door isn't very far, that could have gone outside," she pointed out before stepping over the mud and going to the cupboard. She found the ginger and set it on the counter, then took a knife and started to chop up the vegetables.

"So, how did you do that? The trick with the water and the fire? You just breathed and made fire! Does that hurt your lungs? Or does the fire form outside your mouth? For that matter--and I've been dying to ask someone about this, no one ever gives me a straight answers!--where does your magic even come from? Is it a spirit that grants you the power? A god? Your own will? Words of power? Do you just tap into the natural, grab it by the tail, and force it to do your bidding? I know there are a lot of theories about where magic comes from but elemental things...well, obviously, we don't really discuss that much! If someone can't do it, no one wants to be the one that accidentally teaches them! Not that I plan on learning! I don't think I have any gift for that at all, and for some people, it seems you can either do it or you can't, and I can't do any of that. Not for lack of trying! Though maybe I wasn't trying the right way--ow!"

Not paying attention to what she was doing and getting a little too excited in her chatting, she'd managed to nick her finger. With a frown, she stuck it in her mouth to stop the bleeding.

"Oops. Ah...well...it doesn't look like I got any blood on the carrots, at least..."
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nephero

Really, Shea wasn't sure why he was so nervous about such minor magic. He'd done much more many times before, far more complicated variants with all manner of alternating variables to keep track of. And here he was, nervous about lighting a damn fire.

Maybe it was what Mei said about it being unnatural, against creation. Again, it wasn't like such accusations ever bothered him before, but for some inexplicable reason he found himself actually caring about what the girl thought of him. Which was just too weird, far too weird.

So caught up in the brewing storm that was his thoughts, he didn't even catch her comment about the mud, and rather continued to flick it off onto the floor. He came back to himself right around when she started chopping, the rhythmic cuts bringing him back to reality as only stable patterns could.

"It's all in understanding the elements present within one's own body. We're all made up of them, earth, fire, water, air; it's just a matter of favoring one over the others. Our breath is naturally hot, I just urged it a little hotter. Outside of my lungs, of course, you don't ever want to try breathing that back in. Your lungs will collapse in on themselves and you'll die."

As for where his magic came from... it was just too tempting. Shea simply couldn't resist, and he shot Mei a wicked grin.

"I'm actually possessed by the incredibly potent spirit of a long-dead sorcerer. Magic runs in the blood, and it's only after taking in his blood via a horrific body-swapping ritual that I'm capable of magic at all."

He let that sit still for a moment, before he burst into laughter, suddenly forced to stop in his kitchen duties to rest his head on the counter top while he had his little fit. He rubbed at his single eye to rid it of tears, gasping a bit for breath in between continued snorts.

"In all honesty... it really is in the blood. There's a natural sort of affinity present-- like being able to roll your tongue, it doesn't take much-- and then the careful application of years of study. Minor tricks are all well and good, and even a child can be capable of them if they're clever enough. But in order to understand it, in order to not, say, set an entire island on fire or freeze it solid, you need to study for... well, ages."

He reached over on instinct, plucked Mei's finger from her mouth and turned her hand over to inspect it. For half a moment, the cut seemed perfectly clean, all layers of pink skin. But then the moment passed, and crimson welled up into a thick droplet, and Shea was entranced by the color for perhaps far longer than he should have been. He pulled a bit of cloth from the pocket of his apron, and pressed it to her finger, holding it there and checking on the bleeding intermittently.

"But you'll always be long dead before you can even hope to scratch the surface of what there is to learn."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

Mei stared at Shea, unblinking, her lips a thin line as she nursed her wound. Shea said it so deadpan, so seriously, that for a second, she didn't know what to think. But then he burst into laughter and Mei let out the breath she'd been holding, her shoulders sagging in relief. Not that...not that she'd actually believe something like that, of course! Not her! That was far too ridiculous! She was aware that darker magics existed, of course, but no healer she knew of ever dabbled in those things! Certainly not a man who'd patched up her leg, invited her to dinner, and planned on joining her excursion the next day!

Ridiculous!

Besides, evil people were never attractive. Probably because dark magic poisoned them or something. It was like a universal rule.

After a second's pause to process the joke, the humor finally hit, and Mei joined in his laughter. It was contagious when she wasn't being laughed at, and the only thing that cut hers short was the droplet of blood running down her finger. With a grimace, she popped it back in her mouth and nodded along as Shea explained the link between blood and magic. Ah, so it was intuitive, inherent. That made sense, and was kind of disappointing, knowing it was one area she'd never get to experiment with.

"Hmm. That makes sense that--oh!" She cut off when Shea took her hand and her cheeks warmed at the touch. She couldn't help it!

And as Shea examined her finger, she stole a look up at him, and didn't even notice how strange it was for him to be studying her wound so long.

He had really nice lips...

His voice brought her back.

"Hm? Oh, that's true! But don't say things like that! It's depressing!" Mei said, scrunching her face up in misery. "I don't want to think about dying and all the things I'll never know before I do! How horrible would it be to go right in the middle of a project, at the cusp of some great breakthrough that you'll never finish? Ugh! Those are the thoughts that keep me up at night, Shea. Life is so short! So I want to see and experience as much of everything as I can before I'm too old to remember what I've had for breakfast and before I'm born again as a mindless child. How frustrating, not to remember all your past accomplishments, to have to relearn such simple things such as how to use a chamber pot!"

She glanced down at the cloth he'd pressed to her finger. "Though maybe next time I'll be a mage of some sort. They say each time you're reborn, it's to learn the different things your soul needs in that life, so maybe that's not quite so terrible."
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nephero

The look on Mei's face was almost enough to send Shea straight into another bout of laughter. It was a cruel joke, really, more private than one shared between two people, and he was fairly sure if she knew the half of it she wouldn't be joining in at all.

He wasn't sure if he felt bitter about that.

Still, the moment was nice enough, and he let himself enjoy it, the warmth of some company that was... well. Warm. It was pathetic, just how starved he seemed to be for it, and for a good moment he felt almost disgusted with himself. God within, hadn't he learned his lesson the last time? Was he really so dense these days? This was well beyond normal parameters of interaction, well beyond what he should be allowing himself to partake in, and well beyond what was necessary for the girl to just lead him to that spot of dead wood and let him be done with the whole affair.

Really, if it weren't for certain individual's apparent incompetence, he wouldn't have to be risking such interaction in the first place. Shea Ru resolved to find the coarsest sand he could find and just make the bastard eat it by the bucket. Not that Haskill would taste it, but the message would be loud and clear and maybe Shea would feel better about this whole mess.

It was a shame. He thought he could possibly like her. But the fact she had gone so silent was more than telling; it was damning.

Shea Ru took a deep breath, as if to settle himself down again, and let it out in a long sigh.

And then, damn all the gods, some perverse sort of hope was dangled right before him. Shea knew he shouldn't rise to the bait, could almost hear the snide, reedy way he'd be chastised for this--

what in the devil made him even think that a modicum of personality and free will was a good idea anyway

--but he just couldn't help himself. It was just too easy, she was just so small and full of a thirst for knowledge that he himself knew all too well, and for the barest moment he just wanted to immortalize the feeling of camaraderie.

Well, maybe he could.

But not in the way he necessarily wanted.

He chewed at the inside of his cheek, trying to separate his rationality from a very irrational pattern of thought, disturbed by how frequently those same threads of thought had been springing up lately.

"I could believe that... the whole, rebirth thing." He paused, considering her, and then pushed forward with a wild abandon that he hadn't dared allow in years, "but it's not... set in stone. There are enough stories of those who... shall we say, postpone their deaths and possible subsequent rebirths for centuries beyond their normal due. Usually for the very same reason you just mentioned-- to keep learning. To not just lose all that wealth of knowledge they'd acquired."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

"Postpone their deaths...?" Mei blinked up at Shea and tilted her head to the side like a curious puppy.

"With magic, you mean? Ooh. Oh no. That doesn't sound like a very good idea. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's one of those things that goes against Inima. To be fair, I'm not sure, because I've never really read anything that addressed that, exactly, but that sure sounds like hubris, using unnatural means to extend the life Inima gave you, thus disturbing the cycle of death and rebirth..."

Mei pursed her lips in thought and checked on her cut to see if the bleeding had stopped. "No, no, that definitely sounds like something that would have dire consequences later. No one wants to die, of course, even if you know it's not the end--though granted, no one really knows that for sure, but...even so, even if you're doing it for learning...by extending this life, you'll be missing out on all the valuable lessons of your next life, and...ow."

She rubbed at her temples with her uninjured hand. "That's a real conundrum! See? You start to mess with the natural order of things, and who knows what will get disturbed in the process! It's like dropping a stone in a pond--it ripples out! No, playing with life and death is never a good idea! I'll just hope I turn into one of those old people that live like into their nineties! Hopefully I'm just as cute then."

And with a little grin up at Shea, she flipped her bangs out of her face, set the bloodied cloth aside, and resumed her chopping.
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nephero

Shea raised his eyebrow at Mei, and it only pushed higher and higher the more she spoke of just how terrible the whole premise of unnatural life-span lengthening was-- without actually reading up on it first. Now, to be fair, there were plenty of actual texts out there that, in fact, did warn against the very subject, and actually did address just how much the action tore at a mortal soul.

Shea had personally read most of those same texts, and had summarily ignored them, but that was beside the point. It took a very large amount of effort not to just openly sigh and roll his eyes, but he figured doing so might just be this side of rude, his own home or not. At the very least, he expected there to be actual research behind an opinion. What a pity.

He had to snort in amusement, however, the little bit of ire that had been building summarily erased the very second Mei grinned up at him. The little imp, it was as if she knew it was impossible to be mad at her for long.

"Oh, I'm sure you will be. It would be a crime against nature itself if you weren't." He shook his head, and leaned on the counter, watching as the knife rose up and down to dice the various vegetables.

"What can I help with, next?"


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Rhindeer

"Hmm..." Mei pursed her lips and thought about his question, glancing down at the vegetables. "Well, actually, it would be a real big help if you happened to have coconut around! But I doubt that's the case, because I haven't seen any coconut in any of the markets I've been to, and the climate is certainly all wrong. Unless I've just been looking in the wrong places, but even then it'd be an import and probably faaar too expensive to consider. But see, the thing is, I just realized cow's milk actually won't work! It'll burn. And since there's no coconut milk, I need an alternative...this soup is supposed to be creamy...ah..."

She tapped her lips, then shrugged. "Oh well! We're just going to experiment today! Fill that pot with water, won't you, and toss the veggies in? We'll get them boiling a while, hopefully get them nice and soft. And if you have some flour and butter, fetch it! Uh, I hope you're feeling adventurous today?" she said with a sheepish smile. "Because this is going to be an adventure. But I'm confident it'll turn out!"

Deep inside, she was mildly horrified, and praying to Inima that this meal came out edible. It was fortunate she knew how to cook, but she'd always been a very "by the recipe" sort of person. Now that she was being forced to deviate, well...here's hoping!

She was trying to impress Shea here!
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Chronicler

((Any interest in being joined by a necromancer?))

nephero

"I'm afraid I'm fresh out of coconut." Shea's mouth worked into a wry sort of smile, and he idly scratched at the side of his face, just around the stitches set in his cheek. "I've never really had the inclination to get some specially traded in, not in this part of the world. Even if there were a demand for it, it seems like they'd be long gone by the time they got here."

It was a shame, because several (decades?) ago, the milk had been a favourite of his for various lotions, back when he did reside in an area that was more capable of trading exotic foods and spices and herbs. He really missed those days, though the coinciding weather did very, very little to assist him in staying out of local curiousities. The smell alone had been damn near overwhelming. It honestly made him miss the mountains, and the chilling wind storms that sang through it, leaving one's joints aching and nose bitten pink. There were no coconuts, but there were also no visitors banging on the door demanding to know just what the hell he had going on to raise that foul a stench.

"Flour and butter should serve okay, if you're thinking of making them a thickening agent. It won't be the same, obviously, but..." he let his sentence fall away, even as he moved to do exactly as he was told, setting the full pot over the fire. "I've always been a fan of deviating."

He snorted a bit to himself, in a private joke, and threw Mei a wink that he knew would not be entirely understood. Or rather, it would be entirely misunderstood. But when had he ever operated in any other manner?

He coaxed the fire a little hotter, a little higher than it might have been if left to its natural devices.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

That wink.

Mei felt her face heat and her eyes go wide, and for a second she forgot what she was doing, which could have ended badly considering she was chopping the last of the vegetables. Luckily for her, it just meant her blade slowed until it got stuck in the carrot's tougher inner core, where it remained. Deviating, eh?

Oh my...

It was the rising flames that snapped her out of her reverie, and she realized then that she had been staring, lost in her own flights of fancy. Shaking herself out of it and snapping her eyes back down to the carrot, she cleared her throat and pulled the blade back, then sliced down through it in one quick motion.

"If it weren't for deviants--ah, that is, creative people who broke the rules and experimented! Those sorts of deviants, not the other kind, and experimented as in, of course, things like crafting and other such practical things. Of course. Where was I going with this? Ah, yes! If it weren't for those sorts of people, none of the great inventions of the ages would have ever been created! And no great discoveries would be made. I'm also a fan of deviating. As in exploring. As in learning and books and knowledge and things. All things. Of the scholarly variety."

Dear Inima.

Chop, chop, chop. Mei kept her head down to hide her blush, and quickly finished up the vegetables. Why was everything coming out so wrong now? Or maybe that was all in her own head. Seeing the water was boiling now, she went about gathering ingredients and whipping up her experimental concoction.
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nephero

Shea Ru watched with some very poorly hidden amusement as Mei babbled her way through whatever thought process she was trying to get around, his smile growing wider the more she flushed and chopped and bumbled through her words. He touched at his mouth, an unconscious maneuver done in thought rather than on purpose, and his lips curled and twisted against his knuckle.

That was just entirely too easy. He had suspected, of course, but there was the proof of it, solidly in the pudding, all scooped into a carefully labelled jar and set on a shelf with similarly categorized substances.

Where was he even going with that metaphor?

Anyway.

He looked as if he was about to speak, though whatever he might have said was summarily interrupted by what sounded like a loud thwump from the far back room. Shea's head immediately snapped to the side to regard the doorway that led away from the main room, and his smile evaporated as if it had never been.

Lord save him from imbeciles.

He forced a smile at Mei, though it wasn't nearly as warm as it had been a mere moment before, and he held up one slender finger.

"A moment, if you don't mind... I think the cat must have knocked something over."

He stepped away from his place by the hearth, his footsteps sharp and with purpose, sounding far more like suppressed anger than mere annoyance at the misbehaviour of a pet. He snapped the bedroom door shut behind himself, possibly with far more force than necessary, leaving Mei alone to chop the rest of the vegetables.

Well, not entirely alone, that same cat slinking its way back in through the open window at the front of the store, with a baleful look at Mei herself. The feline leapt onto the counter with a grace that didn't match its bony and decrepit appearance, and as it settled down, it reached out a slender paw as if to sneak a piece of vegetable that it didn't actually want but thought it deserved nonetheless.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

"Oh! No worries!" Mei cheerfully said, not all that alarmed by his...briskness. Cats could be frustrating, after all!

Slam!

...Very, very frustrating. Always knocking things over and breaking things! With a shake of her head, Mei finished up her chopping.

Right as a cat slunk in through the window.

Wait. Cat?

The cat knocked something over, did it.

Mei stared at the skinny cat, and looked back toward where Shea had gone. Then she looked back at the cat and shooed away its reaching paw. "No! This isn't cat food. Ah, Shea?"

She started to go about combining ingredients into the pot, throwing glances now and then at her visitor. "Shea, do you own two cats? Because a cat just came in through the window!"
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

nephero

Despite not being that far away, Shea didn't respond immediately to Mei's calls. He didn't respond at all, in fact. Her only reply was the steady crackle of the fire, and the occasional chirping mews from the cat as it... somehow... attempted to charm its way into getting some of those vegetables that it wanted-but-not-really.

There was another thud, though a far more distant sounding one, and after several more minutes Shea emerged from the back room again. His mood seemingly had not improved, and his brows were knit tightly together as he shut the door to the room behind himself. For a moment it seemed like he had forgotten all about the girl in his abode-- he moved instead to one of the many cabinets that lined the walls, and checked on a few of the different jars and pots. Seemingly satisfied with what he found there, he turned back to where Mei Yi stood.

He blinked as if surprised, and then suddenly remembered himself.

"What was that? No, I don't--" he looked then, at the cat very clearly on the countertop, and the cat stared right back at him, its ratty tail swinging back and forth. The momentary pause broke when the cat leapt off the countertop, its tail held high as it twined through Shea's legs, rubbing up against his shins.

"Oh. Ah, no, I don't have two cats. Just... a few things overbalanced in the cellar. Nothing that can't be replaced--" his voice took on an annoyed sort of tinge "-- so it's fine. Likely I'll find what I need near the Touch tomorrow, anyway."

He leaned up against his countertop then, his arms folded. "How goes dinner?"


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

Shea returned just as Mei was pouring the finished soup into two bowls she'd managed to find via snooping. She perked at his return, ready to announce that dinner was served, but he wasn't looking at her. He seemed distracted--which didn't bother her so much, for Mei completely understood! It was an affliction she, too, suffered from because she only had one mind but information was infinite! No, what concerned her was his moodiness.

Hopefully nothing bad had happened! Or at least, nothing that would ruin dinner! She'd worked too hard on this soup with its improvised ingredients (thatshe'dtotallywhippedupjusttoimpresshim) to have all that ruined by some household disaster.

"Dinner's ready!" she piped up when he asked, eager to move onto happier things. Like what an awesome job she'd done, and please oh please let him like it! She'd taste-tested it and it was decent. Nowhere near the original, but he wasn't Thanati, so he'd have nothing to compare it to. She hoped.

She motioned to the bowls, steam rising and curling from the surface. "It's really hot though, so be careful. I think it turned out pretty good! It's not like the real thing, but now it's its own new invention and maybe if you do wind up getting coconuts sometime I could cook up the real thing!"

And then she paused, realizing she'd made that sound, you know, like this encounter was going to be a lot more meaningful than just a random one time thing, and she quickly picked up her bowl. "That is, if I ever happen to come through town again. And you happen to have coconuts. And these two events happen to coincide." She took an slow sip of her soup, drinking straight from the bowl.

Cool like ice.
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

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