A bit of nonsense

Enelen didn't often swear, but even he had to admit that the earth was bullshit. The World of the Diamond was what he'd considered diverse. There were four significant groups and a ton of smaller cultures with their own variations of the big four. Iliril himself was from one of those weird branches, and when he'd arrived on Earth, he'd assumed he would have been facing something similar.

No such luck. There were dozens - probably hundreds - of different cultures. Enelen literally couldn't walk to the cafeteria without tripping over another one, and that was only counting the human cultures represented. And they weren't just variations of larger cultures, but totally disparate cultures that didn't have much in common. Some people bowed to greet each other. Some shook hands. Some gestured. Some spoke. Some rubbed their noses together, and others clapped.

It didn't make any sense, as far as he was concerned. He'd had enough trouble keeping track of the variations between ritual, chants, and words, and all this new stuff was... excessive. He didn't see how it was even possible for someone to learn all the different variations. A lot of what he was learning at his culture class was easy enough (he really didn't need to be told that physical violence was a no go), but the rest of it... well, it was hard to get his head around.

At the moment, they'd been partnered up to discuss the idea of eating and manners that went along with it. Some of the other people in the class didn't eat at all, so the whole thing had to be explained. Then they were supposed to be partnered up, and supposed to go through a (rather boring) worksheet about various customs associated with it.

Enelen was certainly human - his world had a very similar species setup as this one - but he knew very little about the cultures of the world. It put him ahead in certain classes and behind in others, because he looked normal enough that teachers often assumed he knew things that he didn't. No one was going to look at him and assume the basics of world history would be totally lost on him.

Enelen glanced up when spoken to, eyes widening. Not a human partner, but certainly humanoid - easily a foot taller than him, and just as thin. But it was the eyes that threw him off, wide and staring, the color seeming to have been drained right out of them. They were so pale it couldn't even be counted as 'pale', just white, and the only color seemed to be the lightest tinge of greenish blue. His first impression was a completely incorrect one - that they were from some sort of sea planet.

"Oh - no, I don't." He shifted over, making space at the table so that they could sit down. "I can't actually write English, but I can make it read in English, so it works out in the end." His older self had actually helped on that one, teaching him a variation of the very spell that Enelen speak to people even when he was off campus. "I'm guessing you're from..." He trailed off, suddenly wondering if it was rude to guess, and then changed his mind, opting to introduce himself instead.

He stood up, giving a little bow. It was normal enough for his culture, and he couldn't have even made a guess as to what the standard greeting for his new partner would be.

"My name is Enelen of the Stave. I can read and write in English, but I'm largely unfamiliar with the cultures of this world." With that introduction done, he took his seat again,

Enelen didn't know what an Aridia was, or a Carina, or even a light year for that matter. But it didn't matter that he didn't, because he understood the one important word in her sentence - constellation.

His mouth formed a neat little o, and then his eyes lit up in excitement and obvious curiosity. Space. She was from space - an alien. Not the first he'd seen, but the first he'd properly met. Cytus sounded like a normal enough name for this world, so he wasn't sure if it was actually a normal name for her, or if she'd chosen it when it arrived. But then, he was a very poor judge for what was or wasn't a normal name for the culture...

"No, I'm human. I'm just from a parallel world to this one." All of a sudden he was happy he'd spent so much time trying to find the best possible words to describe his situation. Dimension wasn't quite right, because they weren't an extra dimension, and just saying 'different world' opened it up to him being an alien. Parallel world was the closest explanation he'd found. The world he was from was also earth, only it wasn't the exact earth they were on right then.

"So I'm familiar with some stuff - like, human stuff - but not other stuff from this specific variation." He clarified. "I'm guessing you're from a completely alien culture?" A fairly safe assumption. He doubted her own culture would have much in common with earth culture.

Enelen startled a bit at the mention of his older self. It was... well, it was true, but he didn't think anyone would make the connection so quickly. It was a foolish thought, considering that they looked almost identical, but the truth was revealed more by her wording. From the school records? That was... curious. What was a student doing going through the records, exactly?

"You've seen my records?" He said, before realizing he hadn't actually answered the question (even if his reaction would have made it obvious enough). "Yes, he's here too. He's from an alternate world from my own alternate world, only he didn't come here until he was older." Which made things... well, very confusing. He was no background in that sort of thing, while his older self seemed to have a better grasp of it.

"Yes, it's usual to write things down. They probably have resources at the office for people to translate over with, but most classes want written assignments. Some people do better in writing." Enelen was one of them. Given the chance to write out his thoughts, he inevitably did better.

The idea of not speaking was... okay, he couldn't even really imagine it. He talked a lot. He couldn't imagine just... not talking. How did that - okay, he was going to just have to ask.

"But if you don't speak, how do you even communicate?" He didn't get it. Maybe they just wrote everything? Only that seemed so... big.

"Mostly magic. Everyone has magic, so things that would be technology here are magic on my world. Some things are a lot more efficient, like transportation." Planes seemed... okay, planes seemed scary more than anything.

Ahhh. If they worked for the school, that made a lot more sense than... well, then them just knowing things. Not that knowing things would be that weird. Someone in the school probably did know anything they were asked. That was exactly the sort of power that someone at the school would have.

It shouldn't really have been a surprise that Cytus was from a more technologically advanced society than him. Really, everyone was from a more technologically advanced world than him, because his world more or less didn't have technology. Everything was just magic. Cytus's world seemed even more advanced than earth though.

"Well... yes? Only we didn't have computers. We would use magic to write things down automatically, and you could just narrate to it, but you were always trained to write in the first place." That sort of magic didn't get taught until later on.

The mention of telepathy perked him right up. He knew the theory of it, but he'd never encountered anyone who was. The explanation of a hive mind made him think that Cytus probably couldn't push thoughts into human brains - just the brains of those like her.

"You're very different from humans then. As far as I can tell, the humans of this world and the humans of my world are identical with the difference of magic." Similar evolution, in theory. Magic didn't seem to show up as much as it should have on this world, but he was also coming from a very biased viewpoint.

"Well, we've got four main types and a lot of sub variants. We call them 'Schools', and everyone is connected to one of the big four. " He was obviously eager to discuss this sort of thing, and his speech seemed to speed up. "There's staves, which is me - we use staves as a focus for our magic." He wiggled the staff he had leaning against him for emphasis. "And then you've got words, who say what they want to happen, chants, who sing their magic, and ritual, whose magic takes the longest but is the most complex." It was the sort of stuff you taught to children in his world. "They've all got their own benefits." Although he was partial to staves for obvious reasons.