spellbinders | [WORLD ONE | FINAL GOODBYES]

Entry tags:

[WORLD ONE | FINAL GOODBYES]

Who: Coven members and the Palai
Where: The Palai Marketplace
When: Days 75 & 76
Open/Closed: Open to All
OOC Note: This is for any and all unresolved threads you'd like to get out of the way before the coven leaves Aimintas. Feel free to backdate specific prompts to whatever day is suitable for you.

The initial setting information found here should be utilized for threads here.

There's no official OOC account for the Palai people. You're free to roleplay their actions and reactions on your own, as in depth as you want -- asking questions, hand-waved interactions, becoming best friends. The new world is your oyster!

Since the Palai discovered that the coven is preparing to leave, they've been preparing for the moment their friends do eventually vanish. This means wrapping up large baskets of food and other supplies that will be given to the coven for their large caravan -- but they also like to give out little personal gifts to those that they recognize or have formed a bond with.

Though the Palai are usually people of celebrations, this event is much more muted and personal. Gifts are given and they're certainly congregating, but there's also a dull hum of sadness in the air. The coven has done a lot for their people and helped them establish protection for themselves, so how they fare from here should be positive. With the Uvi gone, will another threat arrive? Who knows -- but the coven won't be here to witness it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. [ . . . ] That's cool.

[She's taking it pretty well, for her part; mostly she seems thoughtful as she gives Geir another glance over. He definitely looks big enough to be a legendary monster. It's on the tip of her tongue to ask, What kind of legend?, or even, Are you a demon? but then he asks his next question, and she goes with it--easier to follow the flow of conversation.]

Not really. It's--Khola's a small town, and we're all human. [Again: mostly.] There's a fairy kingdom nearby, though.

"Fairy"? I don't know that one.

[Geir seems to take it for granted that Tara-Fay will take it fine. what could possibly be weird about this conversation? the strange thing is that she doesn't completely smell human, even aside from the shapechanging from earlier; still, things don't exactly work like they do at home here, and he's willing to accept that that could be the same for her world as well. at least, for now.

what would another kingdom be doing so close...]

Were they at war with you?

What? No. [And after a pause:] They're fairies. I don't think they--have wars like people do. They care about different stuff.

[Oh, right, he asked a question.]

Fairies are--First Creation. Um, like what God made before he made humans. They can change shape and--they're magic and--weird. They think weird things are funny.

[She makes a little face, like she's not entirely happy with that explanation. Oh, well.]

Not having wars sounds kind of nice...

[the rest of her explanation loses him immediately. "First Creation" makes sense as some higher order of being, but which one God supposedly made humanity? Geir's pretty sure that's not how the story goes. even the first of the Aesir weren't created so much as revealed...]

I don't really get the rest of what you just said, but if they're weird shape-changers, they're probably up to some trick or another. That's what Dad always says, and he should know.

[he smells pastries baking down another street and turns to follow the scent. how many weird family stories are there about Loki changing shape and getting into trouble? way too many, that's the answer to that question.]

I guess. They mostly keep to themselves, but they like playing tricks on each other.

[She's spent some time in the fairy kingdom, so she knows. Are they going a different way now? Fine, she can follow.]

Uh. Are there a lot of wars where you're from? Or something?

Ha! I bet that's a relief.

[he muses on the question for a moment... the wars of humans never touched him very much, but he's willing to trust Vern's evaluation that the number is very excessive for his answer.]

Yeah. I've heard that there are wars all the time. I don't really see much of them, since they're wars of humans, but you know how it is. Everyone wants to get to Valhalla.

[he says that last with a kind of polite distaste but without much feeling. Vern hates that system, and he'll stand with Vern, but he privately thinks that if he were a human, he'd probably rather end up in Valhalla if he had a shot at it, too. how could Odin's hall not be better than whatever they have?

he's tried to understand, but it all seems very far away.]

[Now he's lost her. The perils of having your worlds be based on totally different mythoses.]

What's Valhalla?

You don't even have Valhalla?! Geez...

[that's somehow more surprising than all the rest of the revelations about different worlds. when Geir has a chance to think about it, it makes sense-- wouldn't the people in Odin's hall have told him if any of them came from completely different places? but it's still so strange!]

That's where you go after you die-- at least, if Odin takes you. There are a few different places. Odin and Freyja take the bravest warriors who die in battle, and they can feast and make merry under the shields of heroes.

[that's a pretty good explanation, but it's missing something...]

Odin also just lives there. I used to hide under the table.

[there we go.]

That's not--

[how it works, she wants to say--it's so far from her own lived understanding of death and what comes after--but she guesses if Geir can come from a totally different world, he can also have a totally different underworld.

Or underworlds? Ones that you get taken to by different--]

Who are Odin and Freyja? [A pause, because this doesn't seem right, but:] Demons?

Residents of Asgard. Um, it's more like gods?

[Geir struggles to explain his instinctive understanding.]

They're-- closer to the Tree.

[does someone from beyond the Tree herself even get what that means, when people who live on the Tree's branches and breathe the Tree's air don't always? probably not. oh, bother.]

I'm not sure what demons are, exactly, but they're not that.

[Part of her wants to protest that of course there's only one God--if only because it feels sacrilegious not to--but she doesn't actually have anything to back up that conviction beyond what she was taught at shul, and Geir talks like he knows these beings personally.

Gods, though. Gods. She tables that thought and goes for the other, easier parts of what he said.]

Demons are--First Creation too, at least on our world. They come from different realms than the human one. [This is, sadly, about the extent of her knowledge of demons.] What's the Tree?

Oh, like the giants... that's not so weird.

[this is the first time he's been asked to explain the Tree to someone not even from his world, though, and he can already tell that it will be rough going. maybe if he knew the allegory of Plato's cave, it'd be easier, but he's totally without the tools of Western philosophy here. how do you explain existing?]

The Tree is... the Tree. The World Tree. Its name is Yggdrasil. All the nine realms rest on its branches, and the wellspring of the worlds is at its roots.

[he takes a breath, trying to think; this is the trickier part to explain, and also aware he's going to fail at it.]

It's not... like... you normally see its branches or roots in the world, if you're not looking for them. But they're all around. That's how everything keeps living. If you get closer to it-- I don't mean, physically closer, but-- anyway, if you do, you can see.

[She listens, her face screwed up thoughtfully, trying to understand.]

That's kind of like how the rabbi talks about God. So the tree isn't a real tree, it's--like, magic?

[She's not that great with magic, unfortunately.]

It's... real. But also magical, I... guess? It's present in the world, and it's solid if you have the power to exist like that too. You can touch it.

[he's aware of how lame that sounds, and suddenly feels the urge to prove he knows what he's talking about, with some kind of solid example; he knows it's a bad idea as soon as the words leave his mouth.]

I-- bit one of the roots once.

[that last part comes out in a rush. even if this was a good idea, it's not something he really knows how to talk about.]

Right, but it's not, like, a tree tree, it's a magical tree. [ . . . ] What did you bite it for?

It's a tree tree too? Just, a tree tree in a different... something. Um. I bit it to kill it.

[this conversation just keeps becoming more and more awkward. how can we escape??]

We went back and cauterized it afterwards, though. When we changed our minds? So I don't think it died. It shouldn't have, anyway.

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

oh wait! it's all okay, he turned down this particular street because he smelled pastries baking, and he can see the market stall that sells them ahead. good save, Geir, this would probably be what forethought and planning looked like if you'd planned this with forethought!]

--oh! Look, they're making those pastries...

Edited 2017-09-25 22:15 (UTC)

[No, wait, you can't just do that!]

You tried to kill the tree that's God?

Maybe! Just a little bit! We fixed it!

[NO, WHY DIDN'T THE PASTRIES WORK?!]

Why, though?

[She's suddenly sizing Geir up a little, as though wondering whether she is going to have to turn into a roc and try to kill him . . . this seems like it would be difficult.]

Because I'm the monster that kills the tree in the story that ends all stories! Weren't you listening to me before?!

[he's hunched over defensively, but at that sizing-up glance he straightens and curls his lip back, exposing the tips of his teeth in a snarl. he doesn't want to start a fight, but if she starts one, he's determined to finish it. you don't go long without learning to anticipate a fight when you walk among gods, at least not in Geir's family.

(the pastry chef is watching their interaction in dismay -- she's seen rowdy crowds in a marketplace before, too.)]

But you have to have a reason for it! Why would you want to kill everything?

[She's not doing much more than sizing him up, although her stance is suddenly alert, on edge, and one hand is at her side where you might keep a dagger or knife.

The poor, poor pastry chef.]

[Geir's eyes narrow, and he plants his feet solidly in the street; his stance is easy and fluid, nothing of either tension or relaxation in it. his obviously discomfited reactivity has passed, and it's taken most of his easy, wide-eyed interest in his surroundings with it. it leaves behind an enormous predator with a cool, unreadable expression, teeth hidden from view again but just as openly sizing her up in turn.

this is the kind of encounter Geir expected more of when he and Vern started meeting more people, honestly. his voice is level and disinterested.]

Why not?

Edited 2017-09-25 23:27 (UTC)

Because--because--

[The idea of destroying existence is just so far away from how she thinks about the world that that's all she can muster for a moment.]

--you'd be killing everything. Things you care about, things you like, even you!

[Geir doesn't get angrier at that, or defensive. he doesn't shout back. he doesn't react at all.]

I know that. I've known that since I was born.

Can you stop yelling? You're scaring the nice Palai with the pastries.

[Tara-Fay isn't quite sure what she was expecting from Geir, but it isn't that.]

That's--well--you're the one who started talking about destroying everything!

[She sounds more flustered than angry, though, and her gaze darts around to look at the Palai nearby, who are indeed quite nervous-seeming at all this loud talk of destruction.]

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