Speak softly and carry a big stick

Emy · Sep 4, 2015

@"Thoth"

Iliril of the Chant

Muttering brought unwanted attention, and so did looking constantly like he had something to hide (himself). Iliril knew this, took it upon himself to mentally map out appropriate alternatives, and somehow had still managed to fall into a general pattern of blatant avoidance.

Step one, hug the wall. Figuratively. Definitely figuratively. Step two, look around a corner. Should people be present, hide in a classroom. Should the classroom be in use, hide in a closet. Should that fail for whatever reason also be occupied. Something, something, pretend that he pulled an all nighter (not a lie but it was hard to act like it when he was so jittery.) Step three, pretend to not exist. Step four, pretend everybody else does not exist. Step five, eventually go back out into the open and repeat. Over and over.

It should be noted that while Iliril was perfectly good at putting plans together, working off of seven hours of sleep in four days was probably not ideal. Then again, neither was his entire life so he supposed that everything was being pulled together just swimmingly in accordance with that. Fantastic.

Feeling more than a bit sorry for himself, it, combined with the exhaustion, was enough to send him out of the dorm room to search for something to eat besides what he assumed to be cleverly decorated cardboard. Unlike most people in his situation, he did not wonder at how people lived in this world, nor did he think things like in my world, we would have done x. Because frankly, all Iliril wanted at that point was to maybe grab a slice of bread and retreat back to a dark corner and sleep for the century.

The only problem with that was that he preferred not to talk to anybody, not to be seen by anybody, was completely lost on campus, and also was more than a little impaired in judgment. Also if people could be rated for alertness, Iliril would have been scoring negative twos right then.

Romi · Sep 5, 2015

Enelen was also distracted, but for a much different reason. He was reading. Not just reading sitting on a bench, but instead reading on his way to the cafeteria, his nose almost literally in the book as he trotted along the path. He was certainly awake, and should have been aware, but he was extremely interested in the book he was reading, and a train could have gone by a foot away without him noticing.

His clothes had changed surprisingly little since his arrival on the Manta Carlos islands. He was used to a uniform of sorts, and since there was no uniform for the university, he'd mostly kept his old one. The same green sweater. The same black pants. The same brown shoes. The tie, at least, was different, although the brown diamond pin and the staff would remain the same no matter what he wore. He had some vague ideas about expanding his wardrobe, but he hadn't put anything into action.

He slammed into someone without even realizing it for a solid second and a half. He didn't fall to the ground, but did stumble backwards, his book falling to the ground. With a cry of distress, he immediately retrieved it, checking for damage, and only then did he remember he'd run into someone, not something.

"Oh, are you alright?"

Tag to @"Emy"

Emy · Sep 5, 2015

Iliril of the Chant

The force pushed him a few steps back but besides that, Iliril remained on his feet, stumbling just a little. He was tired enough that the only vocal reaction he could give to the collision was a dazed sounding nrgh? There was a vague sense of embarrassment in the back of his mind but, initially present as only an afterthought, it soon was washed entirely away by immense confusion from seeing something that was actually familiar in this strange Earth.

Iliril had given up on his school uniform shortly after the Ishikawa had dragged him out from the stagnant world. There just hadn't been any point in keeping it. It was, as far as he was concerned, an old relic that he should keep safely stowed away in hopes of. Something optimistic that he was pretty sure would never happen. Instead, he had taken up clothes which, at home, might have elicited reactions along the lines of "Oh, it's one of those crazy cultists again."

So seeing Enelen standing right there in uniform with the diamond shaped pin on his lapel and staff in hand was a shock because it seemed so natural. Like they were still back home and nothing had changed at all except for the background which was clearly Manta Carlos but if he stopped and ignored that one part, all of the pieces fell back exactly where they should have. It was like he had broken vase and returned later, only to find that it had never been broken at all. That was the illusion.

Iliril had been so certain that he had buried the World of the Diamond deep in his closet. And yet, there it was in the plain light of day. He couldn't help himself. He stared, and the very first coherent thought in his head was a snappish, frantic Who went digging through my life and why?

It was real, it was real, it was real and Iliril had absolutely no clue what he was supposed to do except maybe shake this mage by the shoulders and scream at him in mixed anger and relief, "You're not supposed to be alive!"

So it was a good thing he was too tired to do that. He processed the question, slowly, and still continued to stare. Then, very, very quietly -and not just to hide his stutter- Iliril said, "I d-don't t-think s-so."

Romi · Sep 8, 2015

Enelen was (perhaps thankfully for Iliril) not aware of the inner workings of the school of chants. He'd never heard of the specific group of cultists that Iliril belonged to, and considering the utter mishmash of uniforms that the islands possessed, he didn't think more than a second about it.

And that would have been all, had the boy not stared at him. It was not a quick glance, or a look of curiosity at his staff. No, it was a full on gawk, like he actually had two heads or something. It just seemed to drag on and on, second after second before the guy finally managed a stuttered out response. He didn't think he was alright? Enelen had a sneaking suspicion that the message had gotten garbled midway from his brain to his mouth, and frowned a bit.

"So you are hurt? Or did you mean you're fine?" He didn't mind the stutter so much, beyond that it made an already confusing situation that much worse. Why was he staring like that? Enelen finally decided that asking about the staring wasn't any ruder than actually staring, and blurted out his question without trying to word it nicely.

"Why are you staring?" As far as he knew, he looked like a perfectly normal human for this world, save for his staff and clothes. But the boy who was doing the staring looked even weirder than him, with very odd looking horns and a mark on his cheek that might have been a tattoo.

Tag to @"Emy"

Emy · Sep 8, 2015

Iliril of the Chant

Oh damn, damn it. He had actually heard him. No, no, if there was one thing that Iliril's sleep deprived mind could agree on right then, it was that he didn't want to deal with this sort of thing. Not then, anyways. He hadn't even dared to dream that he would see another person from his world. Chants, he could handle. But Staves? That was unfamiliar territory right there. He didn't think he had even been alone in the same room with somebody from that school in his life. The only reason why he could recognize Enelen's clothes at all was because that particular school was massive.

There was no plan for this. Iliril liked plans. They kept things simpler. Plans made it so he could get away with minimal talking, with strangers who were this close to sending him back to the five stages of grief. He should have never left the room. He couldn't even answer the simple question posed to him because it demanded more than a single word and all he had right then were single words. Yes. No. Maybe. Please.

Maybe it would help if Iliril just took a moment to stop and actually breathe. That would be good but he still didn't know how this confrontation was supposed to go. Was he supposed to just come out with it? Could he just walk away and come back to it later? Starlight was large and he had heard that people tended to disappear into the populace from time to time, though, so as much as he wanted to just leave, there was somebody from the World of the Diamond right there. Right now.

His mind went completely blank and the last actually decent idea he had for the time was to put a hand up to his ear and hide the pin there, just fiddling with it as if it were a nervous habit.

"Um. I g-guess y-you l-look l-like s-someb-body I k-know," Iliril said lamely. Which was. Not the best answer, he admitted. "S-sorr-ry. I'll j-just g-go, I g-guess."

But wait, that wasn't what he wanted to do either! Wait, no. Yes. No. The only reason why he hadn't had a complete nervous breakdown into a sputtering -more than usual- wreck was because he was in public.

Romi · Sep 10, 2015

It was awfully hard to tell if the stutter was because of his nervousness (because he was very obviously nervous) or just a general thing. It seemed a bit extreme for him being nervous, but then he could just be extremely nervous. There was no way of knowing, having only just met him, but Enelen did intend to know, especially when he mentioned that he looked like someone he knew.

"Someone bad?" Why else would he be stuttering like that, so shocked and alarmed. "Whoever he is, it's not me. I'm not from this world, so unless you're expecting him to have chased you across dimensions, there's nothing to worry about." He sounded just as plucky and upbeat as the other boy didn't, fully to the very brim with curiosity. Did he really have a doppelganger somewhere out there? Or perhaps not a true doppleganger, but just someone who looked like him. Or maybe his twin was dead, and that was why the boy had stared so, thinking he might have come back from the dead or something.

There were an awful lot of options and possibilities, and he had no way of narrowing them down until he ferreted more information out of the boy. They seemed about the same age, and that let Enelen convince himself he was not grilling the other boy per say, but instead simply chatting with him to indulge his curiosity.

Definitely not pressing him for information, no.

Tag to @"Emy"

Emy · Sep 10, 2015

Iliril of the Chant

"W-wait, w-where d-did t-that c-come f-from? T-that's n-not w-what I s-said at all!" How did he even get that conclusion? Iliril's panicked mind was fixating on that part about different worlds. Was he being that obvious or was this world simply so strange that sauntering in from a different world was routine? Was this something that he ought to get used to? Wait, of course not. He hardly intended to stay if he could help it.

Iliril was starting to come upon the dim realization that anything he said this guy would be the wrong thing to say. Because this boy was far too enthusiastic for his own good and this was just the sort of person who should. Not be spoken to when already exhausted. He stared at the other mage for a moment, wondering blearily if this was a characteristic that all mages in the School of Staves shared or if this was just a personal trait.

"J-just n-nev-verm-mind! It's n-not t-that imp-port-tant!" Because, really, this sort of thing happened all the time, right? Completely nothing unusual here!

Romi · Sep 12, 2015

Enelen could so often be a trusting person, but he was far from stupid. No, anyone who was paying any attention would be able to suspect that the boy was hiding something.

Enelen was not be deterred, and he stuck out his hand, very clearly offering it in a shake. He hadn't ever really shake hands growing up, hands being usually occupied, but people seemed to think bowing was strange, and most people did shake. So he'd picked up the local custom.

"My name is Enelen." Most people in the school didn't seem to use their last names at all, so he was perfectly fine going without. "I only arrived here... maybe a few weeks ago? Not all that long ago." While Enelen certainly suspected something, he had no idea that he was offering his hand to someone who would have no doubt been familiar with his own customs.

Tag to @"Emy"

Emy · Sep 12, 2015

Iliril of the Chant

Iliril stared at the offered hand in confusion. What was he supposed to do with it? The concept of shaking hands was still virtually unknown to him. It was not a custom back home, nor was it was a custom upon the family which had brought him over. And it seemed doubly strange because for somebody from the School of Staves, that was a bit impractical, right? Blinking, the mage shook his head, dropped his hand, and instinctively took a few small steps back and made a bow as usual. Because as much as he would like to get away, something like making introductions was just so basic and deeply rooted that it hardly warranted a thought.

"Um r-right. I'm Il-lir-ril." It was like pulling teeth, even saying his own name. Iliril frowned to himself. "H-hav-ven't b-been h-here f-for v-ver-ry l-long." A week at most, probably. It wasn't like anybody had bothered to tell him what he was supposed to do now that he was on a planet that was decisively not dying so the days had started to meld into each other.

"I'll j-just b-be g-going n-now."

Evade, evade, evade, evade. He was probably failing miserably right there.

Romi · Sep 14, 2015

Oh, well. A bow then. Well, he could do that too, and he quickly dipped into his own bow. Bowing was how he'd been raised, and despite all his best efforts to get used to the culture of the island, it was still what was familiar to him.

"Iliril?" He was mostly guessing, since it was hard to tell just how something was said when he was stuttering so hard. "Oh, you're just arrived then?" If Iliril thought that answering his questions would get him free of Enelen faster, he was dead wrong.

"Did someone already give you a full tour then? It's all pretty familiar to me now, I think I could give a good one." Part of it was just that Enelen was naturally very friendly and talkative, but part of it was also that he was sure Iliril was up to something. There was definitely something going on, and he was going to find out just what.

Tag to @"Emy"

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Speak softly and carry a big stick

Emy

Well-Known Member

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Emy

Well-Known Member

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Emy

Well-Known Member

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Emy

Well-Known Member

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Emy

Well-Known Member

Romi

Secretly a Bird