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

[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.]

[Geir shrugs, a flip of his wings; he seems disinterested.]

We were having a conversation, and you barely kept your hand off your knife. I really wouldn't try it, if I were you.

[it's very easy, sometimes, to turn aside from his fledgling personhood and just... not. not react, not care, not show or think about the fact that he might have had a reaction in other circumstances. he wonders if he would care about Tara-Fay's accusations if he were being a person right now, but he rather thinks he wouldn't; she's very small, and he doesn't know her, and she hasn't tried to understand enough that it's even worth the attempt to explain.

maybe he is being a person, just one who doesn't care? it's hard to tell. the effort to figure out which it is doesn't seem worth it.

to the Palai:]

It's okay, guys. I just want some of those pastries for the road.

Edited 2017-09-26 02:06 (UTC)

[She blinks and, after a moment, relaxes that hand, almost like she hadn't realized she was doing it. But if she stands a chance against him it's not with her knives, anyway, so the arms go across her chest instead, folded.]

You don't know what I can do.

[But she accepts the likelihood of that statement being true, and . . . is he talking about pastries? This is weird. This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to her, and she lived through her village becoming a literal ghost town.]

You're not going to destroy this world, are you?

Edited 2017-09-26 02:12 (UTC)

I don't know! And you don't get a say. You don't have the power, and by Eikthyrnir's antlers, I do not have the patience.

[it's said in a tone of much friendlier disinterest, but it sounds more alarming for that, possibly.]

Either stop talking about it or leave me alone long enough to buy my bread before you start again. Sound fair?

Edited 2017-09-26 02:20 (UTC)

[She's shocked into silence for a moment; a flush spreads across her cheeks, as though she's embarrassed, even though she has no reason to be embarrassed! All she wanted to know was whether someone was going to be destroying this world while she was still in it! That's a perfectly reasonable thing to want to know!]

No.

[It's said in a sullen mutter--she's looking kind of mutinous, in a low-level, kid-just-told-she-was-grounded sort of way. But that seems to be all she's interested in saying, and she will, in fact, let him buy the pastries in peace, if that's what he wants.]

[he... he does want that, apparently. he's going to just. buy pastries now?? that's what's happening. he eats one.

(it's really good. he's going to miss this place.)

...the thought is enough to soften his face back towards something like an expression when he glances over his shoulder at her, though it's a muted and drawn one.]

...did you want any? I was going to get them for both of us.

[That gets him an incredulous look, her eyes narrowed and probing as she tries to decide how serious he is about a) that offer b) the situation c) both??? It does disarm her enough to unfold a little, though, and in the end she says,]

. . . sure?

[tilted up at the end as though she isn't entirely sure that's the correct answer. Maybe pastries mean not destroying the world? Right now, at least?]

[i mean, that's as good a guess as any?

Geir thanks the Palai, carefully dumps the second, smaller bag the Palai gives him into Tara-Fay's arms, and heads down the street with a sigh. he doesn't go far; there's a cul-de-sac at the end of the short marketplace alley that's big enough for a large dragon to curl up in if he's willing to squeeze and loop over on himself a few times.

this is apparently the appointed pastry-eating spot. follow the beast into his lair if you dare...

(munch munch)]

[Well.

Now she has pastries, she guesses.

After a moment, she follows hesitantly, although she stops well short of the actual cul-de-sac, lingering, apparently half-caught between staying and turning and going. She feels like she probably shouldn't just leave him alone after he talked about destroying everything, and also she's curious, but--he mostly seems to want to eat pastries, and this is the kind of awkward situation she's spent her entire life dreading and avoiding.

She makes an aborted motion, as though she's going to leave, and then stops.]

[Geir lifts his head from the pastry bag to watch her; his expression is mostly neutral again, though without that dangerous disinterest. it's more like he's just... waiting for what she'll do next.

it's definitely an awkward situation? but not the kind of scrambling, stuttering awkwardness of before, at least not to Geir; his is just an awkward existence, a monster with an appetite for life.]

...yes?

[Her mouth is working silent circles, no noise coming out. She shuts it and tries again.]

I don't get you.

[It's delivered with a certain amount of petulance, like, how dare you be a person she doesn't get. The world is unfair.]

[Geir blinks, slowly, eyes widening; it wasn't what he expected. he doesn't really react much otherwise. he's still waiting...]

Um. Did you want to...?

Well--yeah.

[She seems a little confused by the question. Why would you want to not get things, all things considered?]

Did you think you were going to understand me by threatening me and yelling at me about my entire life?

[now, Geir is equally puzzled. that makes two of them.]

Well--

[In truth, she hadn't really been thinking anything, focused as she was on her reaction to hearing Geir had tried to destroy his world.

Which, you know! Seems like a valid thing to focus on to her!! Gosh!]

I--you were talking about killing God and--what was I supposed to do?

[Geir isn't feeling dangerous any more -- the knife being away makes a big difference -- but he's tired and dispirited now, feeling lost and lonely.]

I don't know what you heard or which God you look to. I said I bit a root of the Tree, at home, which is what I was born to do, thank you very much. That Name was written thousands of years ago. But if you were listening, we changed our minds and cauterized the wound, so the eitr wouldn't go deeper.

It's not your concern, anyway. Whatever we do in the end, we'll do because we want to. Nobody else can change that.

[he'd do anything for Vern... even destroy the world, in the end. as much as he might be realizing that he personally doesn't enjoy the idea, that's still true.]

--let me ask you this. Did you do much fighting when the Uvi attacked? Did you defend the Palai?

[Tara-Fay is the type of person who doubles down on feeling wronged when she's told off, so she has a distinctly huffy look on her face as Geir talks, but she does actually remember him saying he "fixed" it. And if he's not going to (is he even capable of it?) destroying this world, or hers, it becomes something much less immediate.

That and "it's none of your business what I do" is actually a line of thought she groks pretty well. She makes a face and looks back out towards the market for a minute while she considers whether and how to answer.]

No. [She raises her chin.] I've had enough fighting, and it wasn't about me.

[Geir lifts his head in turn; gestures with a wing at the city, at the Palai around them. his next words are pitilessly blunt and unlikely to make her feel less wronged, though he doesn't say them with any particular accusation.]

Then you've already watched someone's world getting destroyed in front of you without doing anything. The Palai who were killed are just as gone as anyone who would die when the Tree falls. Why are you asking me what I'd kill or step aside for?

[She bristles and straightens.]

I wanted to know if you were going to destroy this world because I'm on it.

[Geir's eyes soften a bit in a wry smile. this has kind of taken a turn for the amusing...

it's strange, but it feels like this conversation has clarified things for him, and in a weird backwards way he's grateful for that. maybe other people have to decide every day to destroy or preserve their worlds or not, too, in their own small ways.]

I like Aimintas, and we're not here much longer. You probably don't need to worry.

Edited 2017-09-27 20:32 (UTC)

[She puffs up a little--is he laughing at her! She doesn't like being laughed at! and brushes her hair back. She really doesn't get this dragon.]

Well, that's--fine, then, I guess. [She makes a face, like she's realizing that wasn't a very cool or coherent thing to say.]

[he's definitely amused, but he doesn't quite seem to be laughing directly at her -- yet, at least. in the meantime, he upends the bag to drop his last couple of pastries onto the ground.]

Truce? Heavy talk makes for heavy stomachs.

Edited 2017-09-27 21:16 (UTC)

(no subject)

wingfic - 2017-10-01 00:31 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

rootandbranch - 2017-10-01 00:43 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only