middaeg | catch-all (partly open; partly closed)

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catch-all (partly open; partly closed)

Who: Konoe and ~~friends~~ acquaintances (and enemies, and whatever)
When: May
Where: ~around~
What: All the things! So far: herb quest with Dylas; Mrs. Mitten quest with... you?
Warnings: The general stupidity of a catboy chasing a cat? 🙀 Will edit as things come up.
Feel free to use the format/tense you're most comfortable with! I will happily adapt.
If you want to wildcard me for whatever, go right ahead. You're likely to find Konoe around the city, following the magic classes the coven's giving, maybe attempting some very minor magic in a secluded spot, sitting on a rooftop looking out over the city and trying not to feel lonely, or... very much lost because he has no sense of direction.

[closed] HERBOLOGY HELP

It's not for the reward that Konoe does this; in fact, he's not sure what the reward even is. But he's been wanting to take a look at the forest, even if it's supposed to be dangerous, and this gives him the perfect excuse to finally do it. And, since he's not alone... he doesn't have to worry about getting lost either. (Shut up.)

It's strange how much the forest feels comfortable and familiar, yet something about it is still very much off. The smell of the trees and plants is not so different than that of the world he grew up in, but there's definitely something odd on top of that, very faint and sickly sweet, yet anything but sweet at the same time. That's new. The Void never smelled like anything... but then, that only made it more dangerous.

This still feels more like home than a city ever could. Konoe appreciates the comforts of a city, but it's hard to beat scents for nostalgia.

"Follow the river in the forest, it said..." And that's what they're doing. "Do you think it's much further?" He doesn't mind either way. He's just trying to make conversation, in his own way - and perhaps trying to calm down somewhat, with that eerie sickly sweet scent lightly prickling at his nose.

[open] MRS. MITTENS

In a city full of magic and monsters, there's a wide variety of things one should expect to see, and very little that should surprise you. Even so, the sight in front of you may raise a few eyebrows.

"Hey - wait!" There's a young man with a tail and cat ears, his hood long since fallen off his head and flapping behind him like the rest of his mantle. He's running at a pretty impressive speed, jumping obstacles... and perhaps knocking over a thing or two (hopefully not a person or two) in the process, oops.

That's not really the noteworthy thing here, though. The strangest thing to note is that he's chasing... a cat. The catboy is chasing a cat.

"I'll give you milk, so come here already!" He remembers that these Cats are supposed to like milk. He has still not accepted that they apparently - supposedly - can't talk, though... and even if he did, he expects them to at least understand what he's saying.

Clearly this particular Cat is just very rude.

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Glad together? He glances over, trying to judge if the words were intended to mock him. That doesn't seem to be the case, though, so he lets it go. Being direct is fine; offending Konoe's many petty sensibilities is not.

"Let's talk about something else," he agrees, hoping that any and all demons are indeed literal worlds away. "... Done any heroics, lately?"

He may be mocking a little, but only a little. Banter is just an easier way to connect, sometimes, than outright showing an interest.

"Not since I arrived - oh, wait," Iramaat pauses, struck by a thought, and then grins, "I did help a lady in distress. She apparently arrived without clothes and badly needed a bit of help, so I decided to do what I could for her - invested some credit to help her get better equipped. That's heroic, isn't it?"

She glances at him, waiting for approval.

"That's pretty heroic," he agrees, not-quite(-but-almost) reluctantly. Heroic or not, it's a nice thing to do, and that's more important than semantics. "She arrived without clothes?"

And he thought he got a bad deal on his arrival! That was mostly due to the situation he'd arrived from, though, so nothing actually to do with his arrival at all.

"Apparently! And the only thing the Coven gave her was a robe, so she wasn't doing all that well, you understand?" Iramaat sighs and shakes her head.

"The least they could've done was given her a bit of money to get something more than that, but I suppose they have their own problems..."

She pauses and frowns, "Not that I care all that much about coin or wealth, but there you are. It's a sad necessity, I think. Especially here..."

Arriving naked... And Konoe thought he had a shocking experience, falling out of a mirror!

"A robe is a start, but it's definitely not much." He's actually a little surprised; the Coven seems to take decent care of people. At the same time: they can't exactly be forced to hand this host of new arrivals everything they want on a silver platter, so Konoe doesn't hold it against them that they only did the bare minimum here.

"Seriously." He agrees wholeheartedly. City life isn't so bad, but needing to deal with money and what not is a huge complication. "At least there are jobs available that even we can do."

"Yes, there are..." Iramaat muses, "Although I'm not particularly used to working for coin. I normally provide for myself or at least i don't need the money. So this is going be... interesting. A change of pace."

Then she brightens, "But I've always liked new experiences, so at the very least it won't be boring! What kind of job are you looking into? Anything interesting?"

"You... You're pretty enthusiastic, aren't you?"

Surely she is way too excited for this new world adventure!? Not that he really minds it; in fact, he can't help smiling a little. (It's just because she's being weird, he swears.)

"I don't know that I want a steady job just yet... I'm going to stick to one-time jobs where I can discover the city and its surroundings for now."

In part, he doesn't want to commit to anything steady, when committing feels like accepting that he's stuck here. In part, it's just scary to let his financial future depend on a boss, when he doesn't know if said boss will be reliable... or if they're willing to accept cats in the first place.

Random quests feel like a much better idea all around. (Except for the part where he'll likely get lost all the time, oops.)

"One has to be enthusiastic! There's so much to do and see and experience in the world that it would be a shame to be dreary and depressed about it. That's no way to live. No way to live at all..." She trails off with a little laugh and glances over at him, listening to him speak.

"Well, if you find anything particularly interesting, let me know. I'm not going to be so much looking for something steady either. I'm more interested in venturing out there-" She waves a hand vaguely in the direction of the city walls.

"Seeing what there is. That's my calling in life!"

How is she like this? Seriously - how?! The enthusiasm is already more than Konoe can understand, but her having an actual calling in life? That is beyond anything he could ever even imagine for himself. And that's fine! It's not like he needs a calling. In fact, he's not sure whether to envy her or mock her, at this point.

But he actually admires her a little, he thinks. Even if she's kind of weird, holding on to beliefs like that is seriously impressive.

"I'm not sure this is the right place for too much 'venturing'." Discovering the immediate surroundings is one thing; going far into infected areas is more like suicide than like an experience. "But at least if we stay fairly close to the city, we should be fine."

"That's a part of it, though! The danger!" Iramaat spreads her arms, as if to emphasize the point, "Adventuring is dangerous. It's the unexpected. It's risking life and limb. If there's no danger, it's just a stroll in a well-manicured garden and... well, while I don't mind strolls in gardens, that's not what adventure is."

She taps the side of her nose and winks, "After all, a ship in harbor is safe - but ships aren't meant to spend all of their time in harbor, are they?"

"Even a ship is supposed to return to a harbor after it sails, though." Just sayin'. He's no scaredy-cat, but he has enough common sense to weigh risks against benefits before doing anything dangerous.

"There's always danger in a forest. Bandits; monsters..." The Void, he almost adds, but this world is a little different. Still, even the forests of his own world weren't infected everywhere. "That's fine; those are things you can fight.

"The Cywld is different. Even the Coven can't fight it."

More than courting danger, messing with the Cywld feels like committing suicide.

"As far as they know, anyway," Iramaat points out cheerily, "Maybe one of us has the solution! Maybe we're the chosen few who have been brought here for a reason."

She thinks that's likely more true of her than anyone else, but she doesn't say that. Not just yet, anyway. Instead, she cocks her head and makes a little 'hmm' sound.

"To give up before you've even tried isn't really all that great, is it? If you think you'll fail, you'll fail. Believe in success!"

"I'm not giving up!" He is actually insulted by that. He's never given up in his life, and he never will give up. "But there are things you can do and things that you can't do. That's just how it is."

It doesn't count as giving up if you never start in the first place!!

"... I'm really not sure we were chosen for a reason, anyway." The more he talks to people, the less he sees a pattern in who got taken here. "There's nothing we all have in common."

And he, himself, feels very different from everyone else in particular.

If she notices that he feels insulted, she doesn't betray it. She's unruffled and smiling and still as calm as ever.

"Oh, never say can't. Can't is such an awful word. Nothing's impossible."

Well, at least not for her, in her own esteemed and very well-regarded opinion. She's a little full of herself, honestly.

"Well, I'm sure there's somethings - but I also imagine they wouldn't want us all to be identical. We all have different... skill sets. And reasons for being here. Different parts to play in the story. That sort of thing."

"Some things are definitely impossible. Do you want to pull the moon from the sky and keep the sun from moving?"

He's all about not giving up, and fighting back as hard as possible - and then some! - when people or circumstances are against you. But even so, there are things that simply can't be done. Not attempting them doesn't count as giving up; it's more like common sense!

"If it's a story with a hundred players, I'm pretty sure they could have cut out some minor roles, or just left them to the locals." Just sayin'. He really doesn't buy that 'predestined' thing. He tried to find a pattern in who came here, and he failed. 'Magic is chaos' feels like the only explanation they're likely to get.

"I haven't tried that yet, but maybe I ought to. Can't know until I do, you know?" Iramaat replies, apparently with all seriousness, although there's definitely a teasing lilt to her tone. She knows there are fae in the Dreaming who can do such things, but the mortal world tends to be a bit different.

Not that she's letting on with that.

"Why would you ever leave anything to the supporting cast or the chorus? No, no. It has to be the star players. The mysterious strangers. The wandering heroes! Don't think so small!"

She is, however, apparently convinced of them (or at least her) being destined for greatness.

He's not sure how serious she is or isn't, really, but it's all the same to him. "I'm pretty sure that kind of thing is for villains more than heroes." Just saying. Not that he expects her to succeed regardless - that kind of thing really can't be done! - but it won't be a good thing, even if she's successful.

"One hero should be more than enough. We don't need a hundred." And yet about a hundred of them showed up here, didn't they? What is it supposed to be, like a hero audition - see who gets the part?! "That's not thinking small, that's just common sense."

If that even applies at all. He's not sure he believes in heroes. And that's fine: the world shouldn't need any.

"Some tasks need more than one person, although I see your point," Iramaat muses, "But we'll have to wait and see I think. We're here now and all we can do is keep moving forward. We can't look back and we can't go back. So why worry too much?"

She shrugs.

"I don't see the point in getting worked up about it."

"... It's not like I'm getting worked up about it."

His sulky tone honestly suggests otherwise. The truth is somewhere in the middle: he's definitely still bothered by the whole 'falling through a mirror into another world' thing, if he lets himself dwell on it... but that's why he tries not to let himself dwell on it.

He's not always as good at that as he'd like.

"I wouldn't want to go back, anyway." Probably. Maybe...

Edited 2019-05-23 11:33 (UTC)

"Oh?"

Iramaat's ears almost perk up when he says that and she glances at him, eyes wide and curious and very interested. That's an interesting thing to say. Most people want to go back, don't they? She leans in a little.

"Why not? Not a fan of what's waiting for you?"

"It's not like that... except maybe it is, a little."

World-longing status: it's complicated. His ears turning sideways, lowering a little, Konoe tries to figure out how much to say.

"A lot of things were happening there that are over now. If I go back, I don't know if they'll still be over, or if I'll be stuck in them all over again."

"Why would they start all over again?" Iramaat asks, with genuine curiosity, settling her chin in her hands.

"Do you think this place would turn back time somehow? Or that you would just have been gone for so long that things will have fallen apart?"

"Because I'd be there... I guess."

That sounds really ego-trippy, doesn't it? There's really no other way to put it, though. Konoe turned out to be the legendary cursed cat, said to bring about the end of the world. Even if he no longer seems to be cursed here and now, there's no telling what might happen when he goes back to a world where Leaks is.

"... You think that could happen? Going back to the same point in time."

Time shenanigans aren't something he's ever considered. He wonders if that would be preferable over a lot of time having passed... It would at least leave people less worried about his disappearance, probably.

But maybe expecting them to be all that worried in the first place is conceited.

"Oh, it's possible, probably. I don't think we can move time backward," Iramaat explains with a little gesture of explanation, "But I know that time can certainly flow differently in some areas of the Dreaming as compared to the mortal world. Some poor creatures come in and when they come out, it's been a thousand years and to them it felt like a rather long afternoon..."

She doesn't comment on the "I'd be there" bit, but she does file it away for later. That's interesting.

"It's entirely possible that if we make it back to where we came from, we'll have been gone for centuries..."

"The Dreaming?" He's had dreams, and he's been on other planes of existence (sorta-kinda), but this term is unfamiliar to him.

"That's the exact opposite of what you said." No, actually, it's just the exact opposite of the one option she listed that Konoe clung to like a fool, in spite of knowing better. If he goes back, he'd rather go back to the same point in time... even if he's not sure that's best for his world.

"... If it's going to be centuries, I have no reason to go back at all." He doesn't care about his world. All he cares about - maybe! a little! - is a few people in it. If they're gonna be dead and gone, what does he even have to go back to?

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