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Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 6:51 pm
by Destyn
Birdhouse in Your Soul Part II35 Ash, 122
Whilst Imogen staved off the marmo-threat below and internally philosophised about the morality and potential sociopolitical ramifications of their exploit against fire marmoset culture (or lack thereof), Destyn made his way to a peak that rose above the canopy of trees. Alighting upon a high, stony promontory he used this high vantage to review the region he'd just quit. Letting his haul tumble onto the rocky shelf, he picked up a thin-skinned fruit to tide him over while he waited for Imogen to catch up to him. He sniffed at it before taking a bite.
He wrinkled his nose, displeased with the bitterness as he rolled the fruit meat over his tongue. He was about to spit it out, when a sudden aftertaste hit his taste buds and his eyes widened and rolled back in delight.
"Mmm, though!" He said to no one at all, now inadvertently spitting out speckles of the fruit he'd sought to intentionally spew moments earlier. His priorities having shifted, he took another bite instead. The bitterness was cut significantly after the first bite, and he nestled himself down to munch and watch and wait for his new friend to return.
He blinked. She would return, wouldn't she? He hadn't actually seen her use her wings since she'd gone lemur on him. Did they even work? Well, when he called to her she'd responded that she was coming. She seemed a capable fighter. More than capable, in his opinion. And perhaps if she couldn't fly as a lemur, she could just turn back to an albatras. He shrugged, even though this entire conversation was going on in his own head as he enjoyed this novel fruitstuff.
By and by, Imogen the winged lemur-cum-albatross-cum-Ork, crested the treetops and Destyn waved over his head with the hand that wasn't holding the yellow once-ovular fruit, the shape of which had been amended by his bites. He didn't want to call to her aloud, lest he summon the fire marmosets or something worse in her stead, but he waved until she caught sight of him, and then gestured down to the little trove he'd purloined.
"We are a good team!" He proclaimed as she drew up. "Try the yellow one, but don't spit it out right away. It gets good, but it takes, you know, a second." He munched on his own specimen almost demonstrably.
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 7:46 pm
by Imogen
Once she got the hang of it, her chimeric monkey flew pretty well. It wasn't going to be a good shape for long-distance flights, or flights which required a quick launch, or indeed any amount of maneuvering, but it did have some advantages. Two in particular- hands. Actually carrying anything more substantial than a slip of paper was a maddening exercise in frustration as an albatross; for a lemur, however, it was nothing special.
And speaking of hands, she quickly spotted Destyn's waving her in towards his little hideaway. She let herself glide in next to the young fae, then snatched up the proffered yellow fruit. She gave into the lemur's instinct, sniffing it fastidiously as her companion directed her on the proper methods of enjoying the fruit.
Once her nose was satisfied as to the plant's edibility, she dug in with some gusto, her little mouth growing dirty with pulp and juices as she chewed through the skin. It was bitter as Destyn had warned, but that didn't make much difference; her palate seemed to change alongside her form, and the little white monkeys were adapted to eat fruits far tougher and less savory than this one. When it mellowed with time, it was as though she were feasting on some kind of heavenly ambrosia.
"Mrrpmh, we do." Imogen conceded, "Those little monkeys were fierce, but their strange fire magic was no match for us!"
Perhaps a warrior with a better-developed sense of shame would have hesitated to celebrate her hard-fought victory over a swarm of tiny monkey pests; thankfully, Imogen suffered from no such ailment of pride. The fading adrenalin and the sugary juice of the bitter fruit, however, sparked a more philosophical quandary in her mind.
"What magic was that, anyway? Not elementalism, surely, or they'd have been tossing fireballs at us like-" she stopped herself before referencing the famous primate technique of poop-throwing, remembering Destyn's distaste for the subject "-like nothing else. A monkey asked me to teach it Reaving once, you know, but that seems like a particularly cruel thing to do to a monkey. I'd wondered, then, if there was a way to teach animals safer aspects of magic, as the gods taught mortals runes, but even if I knew how to do that I don't think I'd teach monkeys fire magic."
That raised the obvious question- what sort of magic was appropriate for a monkey? Even if one could use a Rune, which wasn't likely, it would be insane to provide an animal with a weapon like that. Perhaps aquamancy. Imogen didn't think it would be so bad if monkeys could... throw spheres of water, or something like that. It would be cleaner than the alternative, anyway.
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:14 pm
by Destyn
Birdhouse in Your Soul Part II35 Ash, 122
Destyn criss-crossed his legs underneath him, getting more comfortable now that Imogen was proven safe and sound and was comfortably enjoying the literal fruits of her labour. Watching her eat for a moment, slowly his expression evolved from flat contentment to curiosity. He'd been introduced to the concept of Animism as a child and, having grown up around its practitioners, he'd long taken certain things for granted. But now that it had been a while since he'd seen the magic put into practise, well... Destyn had questions.
"When you are a small lemur does less food fill you up or do you need to eat as much as you do when you are a giant Ork... who I know is not giant for a Ork, but is pretty flipping big to a Destyn?" He didn't wait a full beat for her to reply, before posing his next query.
"And if you get full as a lemur, but then grow back into a Ork, are you hungry again because your tummy gets bigger?" He knitted his brow, "Maybe I should have gotten more fruits, but this was all I could carry and- Oh!" He wiped some of the dirt off a flat bit of the rock upon which they reclined and reached into his pockets to start unloading handfuls of nuts onto that surface.
"Also I forgot about these. I stoled them from the fire monkeys." He nodded sagely, until Imogen's question made him feel far from wise.
"Uh... You think the monkeys were mages? I thought maybe... mages made the monkeys but the monkeys are not, you know, themselves mages? Because monkeys are usually not very, um... I do not know the word for it, but I do not think they would be very dedicated to learning their craft. But... you know a monkey who dreams of being a Reaver? That is, I guess, cute, but yes probably not a good idea. Do you think that the fire monkeys are, you know, like my people? Maybe they come from another plane and are not from here, or they had ancestors who were normal monkeys but then they went to the plane of fire and they came back and got stuck like me." He knitted his brow,
"Now I feel bad for stealing their foods. Are we bad people, Imogen?"
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:49 pm
by Imogen
Destyn's questions about the Rune of Animus were only natural- it was a very cool power, and she was very cool while using it. Who wouldn't want to learn more?
"Good questions." Imogen replied, slowing down her attack on the fruit. He really did have a knack for tunneling into issues you didn't tend to think about until you realized that they were quite important. "As a lemur, I don't need to eat very much, but when I grow back into an Ork, I'm a lot hungrier than usual for a while. Chief Oping said that a mage's m'taba'lsm, which is some sort of weird Animus concept I didn't really track very well, has to catch up when you use a rune to change your size and weight. So if I stay a lemur for a while, I eat less during that time, but if I try to just turn into a lemur while eating, it'll end up making me so hungry that I'll eat even more than usual."
This thought had chewed at her for a while. The legends of the Orkhan were replete with tales of animists; it was undoubtedly the most popular and widespread of the Cardinal Runes of Northern Ecith, with Elementalism a close second. From hearing those, she was aware that the great heroes were said to have been able to use the rune to take the shapes of behemoths, thunder lizards, even dragons- and while shape and size weren't everything, having the power to transform into, for example, a gigantic snake, would obviously help out in many situations.
But if titanic size carried an equally titanic caloric intake, it was going to spell trouble. Transformation into a tyrannosaur would not go over well if it had to be paired with regular attacks on cow pastures.
"Actually, Animus has a lot of uses you don't think about. Consider flies. Not very helpful to transform into, of course, but they can react to things faster than an Ork can. Cats can jump much higher than a person could if they were the size of a cat. Eagles can see for long distances. Even without ever turning into an animal, you can sort of use the Rune to borrow from them."
The subject changed from borrowing to stealing, and Imogen duly gave Destyn's musings appropriate consideration.
"Well... ancient mages could maybe have done this, but why? Why spread all these elements around at random? Can you imagine one of the Circle wizards trying to make those marmosets do anything useful? They'd set all his scrolls and books on fire! But perhaps there is something to them coming from another plane. I would like to talk to Avamande about this, because they are very good at figuring out that sort of thing. But I have also asked Carina, who has a magic eye, and she has had a difficult time figuring out what is going on."
It wasn't a question they were likely to get any answer to by speculation alone, so she moved on to the moral question. Ethical dilemmas were a favorite of the Sunsingers, who fancied themselves a coven of philosopher-knights, like the Dawnmartyrs before them. She'd been a constant disappointment to her tutors on that front, mostly because she steadfastly refused to consider what they thought were interesting hypotheticals, preferring pragmatic approaches.
"I don't really think people can be bad, Destyn, so the only question is whether what we did was bad. According to the Orkhan of Ecith, the answer is no- we took a small amount of the food the monkeys had gathered up, but they are very aggressive and probably took fruit from a lot of places where they didn't need it and it should have gone to others. According to the laws of Zaichaer, the monkeys aren't people and have no rights, and additionally would be imprisoned and sent to laboratories and die in agony because of their fire magic- but like you, I don't think Zaichaer was very good at figuring out what was good and bad. According to Kalzasi... uh..."
Did monkeys have rights in Kalzasi? Would there be a trial? Would the Shokaze have to render judgment?
"I've forgotten where I was going with this. But anyway, according to the lemurs who I met in northern Ecith, you're forgiven anything you do to monkeys if you just give them a valuable gift in return. So if it worries you, just make them a present."
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 12:38 am
by Destyn
Birdhouse in Your Soul Part II35 Ash, 122
Destyn's eyes widened in awe.
"This sounds like a very potent force, Imogen, this..." His voice was soft as he spoke the word with the reverence due a mighty primal, ..."m'taba'lsm." In fact, it really did sound like the name of a primal! He closed his eyes in a moment of contemplation, before opening them with a single nod and regarding the lemur at his side once more.
"I will bet if you were in a place where there was not as much food it would maybe be a good idea to be a lemur to conserve. And and and if you had friends, like me, then they could have more food and not starve as much because you could be sated when you were small. That would, I think, be a very nice thing to do. I should have been a Animus person. I like animals very much and also I am hungry too much. I guess I could make myself smaller if I wanted to, but I like my size. I am very small in Kalzasi and if I were much smaller I think I would get, you know, stepped on. It is bad enough when the Avialaes fly into me, let alone if they stepped on me." He wrinkled his nose, distastefully at the thought of the inconsiderate lummoxes.
Then Imogen spoke more on the perks of being an Animist, and he shook his head in disbelief.
"Woooow! I never thought of all of that! I wish I were a Animist instead of a Summoner who cannot Summon. As a Fae I can, you know, commune in nature... with? With nature, but it would be better, I think, if I could be on their level... communicate in their terms. I would feel less, you know, foreign." A common feeling for a wandered with no proper homeland of his own.
Destyn looked bemusedly at the little lemur when she posed the question of why an ancient mage would create a race of fire monkeys.
"Do you..." He blinked, "Do you think mages are all stable, sane people? This is not, in my experience, the case. I could, without trouble, imagine a cheeky mage or a bored god making fire monkeys for fun or just to create chaos. And this is a strange land to both of us. Even the rules of my own realm are little known to me, let alone those of this place..." He plucked up a nut and glanced at the canopy spreading out below their promontory.
"Ooh, yes. Avamande is very wise and speaks very well and is very nice to look at and also smells good. But the first thing is why they would be good to ask about, you know... monkeys and mages. The other things are just, uh... You know, observations." He blushed a bit as he tossed the nut into his mouth and crunched down on it with his teeth.
"Yes!" Destyn beamed at Imogen's resolution. "I know what I can do for the Fire Monkeys! I will give them the greatest gift known to Ransera, which is, I am sure, denied to them because they are Fire Monkeys. I will gather for them the giant bugs that crawl out of the ocean! Surely they have never tasted the sweet, suculent meats of the giant bugs that crawl out of the ocean and try to pinch me with their little snipper thingies." He mimicked the crab claws with his fingers and ultimately used them to pick up more nuts to stuff into his mouth.
"They will be very grateful. I just know it!"
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 8:33 pm
by Imogen
"I'm sure you could become an Animist if you wanted." Imogen said, off-handedly, "It was a lot easier to learn than Reaving. Plus if you mess up the initiation, all that happens is you forget you're not an animal for a while. I could introduce you to Chief Oping, who taught me."
Imogen was skilled enough to draw the Rune, certainly, but the notion did not cross her mind. She still envisioned herself as the acolyte, as she had been back in the mountain, with Ansel Gerhard staring down at her with impassive eyes, spear burning in his hand like the picture of some god of eld. Certainly, while she'd been a Sunsinger for a few years, she did not feel like an expert witch.
Destyn's next point caught her off-guard, but after a moment she concluded that he was either wrong in kind or wrong in scale.
"I think... whatever is happening here, in the South, it is affecting all the creatures. Every living thing here is joined to an element- and while a mage might want to do that, who could manage the feat? Perhaps a god could, but why?"
Lemurgen grew increasingly animated as she spoke, as though she were feverishly trying to assemble the pieces into a whole, to solve a puzzle laid out before her. "Look, look at this-"
Imogen placed a large green leaf on the bough, balanced precariously. "This is northern Ecith, yes? It is verdant, full of life, and where the Primals live. There is so much elemental-aspected power there that it all gathers into material form and stomps around. This-" Imogen fetched another leaf and placed it to the side. "-is Southern Ecith, where we are now. There is still life, but it's smaller, less... burgeoning, and the elemental power here is diffused, broken up into all kinds of critters instead of huge god-monsters. And here..."
The monkey-Sunsinger grabbed one of the bitter yellow fruits and placed it between the two leaves.
"...is the desert, where there is much, much less life. I have not heard of primals there, or elemental creatures." Frankly she'd heard very little about it at all, but she thought Avamande, who had spoken of it, would have known if this was simply common to the continent.
"So I bet whatever happened, happened there." Imogen pointed to the yellow fruit. "Maybe a god smote the land a long time ago and it made the elements go weird. Maybe there were Primals everywhere, or maybe the whole continent was like it is here, and something went wrong that caused the elements in the North to start drawing together instead of dispersing. Well, it's only a thought. I'm not really well-versed in that kind of wizard magic, so I want to ask Avamande, because they were taught by a famous sorceress and probably can work out if that's true."
When the conversation moved on to the much more important subject of what gift might placate the monkeys, Imogen showed an unexpected interest.
"Crabs, you mean? That's a very good idea, Destyn. Yes, I too would like to go... crab fishing."
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 2:13 am
by Destyn
Birdhouse in Your Soul Part II35 Ash, 122
The Fae responded to her offer with a beaming grin,
"That would be very nice, yes! Please introduce me to your Chief Opening!" His brain edited an extra syllable into the name unwittingly, because it was a familiar word in his second language. The unintentional pun didn't register to him in the least as he happy chomped down chestnuts and started in on another piece of fruit.
"I used to ask why the gods did things." Destyn mused, glancing up from a melon that had been obscuring the better part of his face. "But massacres occur. Dread mists descend and turn innocent people into monsters. Industry burns forests, kills Fae. The gods do not stop these tragedies, or are complicit. Fire monkeys are, to me, a tame example... whimsical." With his little take on theology espoused, he returned his attention to the melon until it was summoned to focus upon Imogen's makeshift map of Ecith.
Destyn tried to follow, tilting his head with each new element added to the 'map' and each twist and turn to her deduction.
"This is the only part of Ecith I have known. I have never been on this leaf..." He pointed to the top one, "Or this fruit." To which he also pointed. "I have only been here. I do not think that I am a good person to help you with this, so it is, I think, good that you want to speak with Avamande who is, I am sure, more wordly and smarter than I." He bit his lip,
"M-m-m-maybe you could, you know, bring me when you ask them so that I may learn and be smarter." He wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm and reclined back, deciding all at once that he was full for the moment.
"Are you close friends with Avamande? We met on The Duck and they were very good at leading conversations. I was very impressed. I think if I talked to more people I would talk about them a lot, but I am bashful around people, so the wild corn has gotten an earful..." He paused, "So. Do they, you know, ever mention me?"
He furrowed his brow and looked quizzically at Imogen.
"But what is a crabs though?"
Re: Birdhouse in Your Soul [Part II]
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:06 am
by Imogen
Review
Destyn
Lore: 14 lores, stolen from the monkeys
Points: 10xp, may not be used for magic.
Injuries/Ailments: None
Loot: Fruit, which tastes of delicious sugar and even more delectable larceny
Notes: A difficult battle against an unexpected foe, yet our heroes emerge victorious.
~~~~~
Imogen
Lore: 13 lores, slightly scuffed on the bottom
Points: 10xp, may not be used for magic.
Injuries/Ailments: None
Loot: A few bites of the forest's bounty, and the taste of triumph on the lips.
Notes: ...but can these brave explorers survive what horrors await them next, in the briny deeps below? Stay tuned.