aterat | [Log] Same Shit, Different World

Who: Nida, OTA
What: Explorations and Seeking Magic Out
Where: Around the city
When: July
Warnings: None planned, will update as needed

There's a lot to be said about how weird it was to be in a place like this and still be able to feel. Feel in a way he had lost so long ago, the world feeling warm and distant somewhere in himself that didn't... didn't fully make sense. Which of course only led to him wandering, his head spinning with a sense he had forgotten. With the curl of a voice caressing his mind, cradling him with warmth and promise, the touch of a seaside breeze caressing him with all the comfort he could offer.

Magic. He can taste it in the air, and as he wanders the city, Nida will sometimes stop, abruptly, to look at people near him, or some bauble on display. Sometimes his head snaps up quickly, and he moves quickly down an alley or behind a building, only to be visible walking the top of the structure moments later. All of it with an aura of someone watching. Seeking.

"Hyne," he curses as he moves through the Historium, trying to find just what was setting his senses off there.

Or he's there on the top of the Red housing building, his eyes flirting over the city as he draws a map of the place from the high vantage, mumbling under his breath in another language.

There's even a moment when he nearly trips over someone in the market, dancing quickly aside at the last moment because his eyes had been caught up toward the path leading down toward the Curio shop.

In the end, though, he settles down near the fountain, sitting in a meditative position, eyes closed. Until, though, someone started to get close. Then his eyes flashed open, a brief flash of bronze light in his eyes before it settled back down, leaving attentive dark eyes gazing at whoever has approached.

"You feel like magic."

[OOC: Nida is capable of sensing magic, and because of his own abilities, drawing magic from the people around him. That means everyone not-native to the Aterat pings on his senses some because of a natural spell welling up from them in his senses. He can draw a small amount of that power from them, but only with permission which he will seek in-character permission every time. Feel free to message me here or on

churbooseanon to discuss.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aragibal was, surprisingly, chill with the current change in scenery. He wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't some shard from home and it was just a matter of figuring out how to get back home. Things were different, but not so foreign that it couldn't be just an adjacent shard. Money was weird? His sister showed him money from the First, which was also weird. No linkpearls? Crystals instead, same function, seemed to work very similarly - for some reason it was just one linkshell with everyone in it. The technology wasn't particularly advanced, but the world had just gone through a Calamity, so that wasn't entirely off, either.

He had chosen to take a walk and had found himself back at the fountain, curiously looking up to the portals. He caught himself wondering what built them: was it this shard's version of the ancient Allags? He almost caught himself thinking about these things like his sister would, but he was pulled out of his own head at the sound of someone's voice. He stopped walking, looking around and spying the man who was looking directly at him.

"Please forgive me, but I'm not sure I heard you right. Did you say I feel like magic?" His confusion is written on his face: this was a man who was not the kind to hide his emotions. Surely enough, however, he had aligned himself to the wind before leaving for his wanderings. "I fear you may be mistaken, I am not a mage."

Edited (forgot a title thing, also sorry this took 2 years to write) 2020-07-08 20:31 (UTC)

Well of course he had said it. Those were literally the words that had come out of his mouth, weren't they? Was he not speaking an understandable language? This place seemed to have a stabilized SOMETHING to it that meant people could understand each other. But he watched the man as he approached, raising an interested eyebrow at the skin tone, hair color, the color and shape of the eyes.

Not human? Perhaps.

"Given you just repeated back what I said, clearly you heard me correctly. And you still feel like magic. It pulses under your skin. Not everyone here feels like that, but there's something in you that is reading as magic to my," he pauses as there's a pulse in his head and blood from Siren, a soft correction and a flicker of bronze light over his eyes, "to our senses."

The correction might strike the ire of someone else, but Aragibal patiently sat through it. He shook his head a little as the man assured Aragibal that he had magic under his skin, his smile shifting more into disbelief. "I am not really sure what to tell you. My sister is the mage of the family, not I. I utilize my inner darkness to protect my friends, and I manipulate my chakra so I can punch things hard and fast."

The tone of his voice implied that he was not as dense as he was letting on to be, but he was - for some reason - unwilling to admit that his disciplines might be defined as magic to those from other worlds. He seemed uncomfortable to be connected to being a mage. "Who is... the other part of 'our'?"

The other part of our isn't exactly speaking to the outside world, so does she really matter? Well, of course she does, to Nida. To others? It doesn't matter. Or shouldn't. So instead he looks to the man and tilts his head.

"Even those back on my world who don't use magic, who could never access it, have magic under their skin. People are fonts for it, a means by which the magic of the world issues forth."

In a world where bodies can be possessed by the Ascians and made puppets to advance their own nefarious plans the idea of an 'other' is quite worrying. It's clear in the way Aragibal set his jaw that he definitely noticed that the man didn't answer the question, but he relaxed out of it. If it were important it would be mentioned, right? It must not be as big of a deal as Aragibal thought it to be.

"Where I am from... You are describing what we call aether. Aether is like the world's energy, your energy, and mine. It's what makes magic possible. It's what makes life possible." He wasn't as eloquent as others on this topic, but he hoped it made sense. "If what you're talking about is aether, then yes?" He wasn't quite sure where this was going if they were talking about aether, because everyone should have it. They'd be dead if they didn't.

"Perhaps... I can show you?"

Nida frowns as he considers the other man, standing and gesturing toward Aragibal carefully.

"The process... doesn't hurt. But it does feel strange. A pulling that is hard to explain."

Despite his general trusting disposition, this gave Aragibal pause. He had no clue what this would entail and this made him nervous.

"I do not fear pain, but I admit that I am wary of what is to happen." This is one of those times where he wished his sister wasn't who she was and he could be a bit more ignorant. "Throwing one's aether out of balance can have disastrous effects on their person." The way he said it implied it would kill him.

"I hope you can understand my hesitation and forgive me when I ask for a small explanation of what you're about to do."

"It's never killed anyone I've known before, but if that is your concern, then I will not do so. I wouldn't use this power on anyone who wasn't willing."

Even though that often happened back home. Though it was mostly to monsters.

"Harm isn't what I'm setting out to do here, nature aside."

It was less that Aragibal worried he was malicious, and more that he'd seen what his sister had done to herself when experimenting too much on the edge of it all, but if this man had never killed anyone and he wished to only operate within the confines of consent it was likely something that Aragibal did not need to worry about.

"I did not mean to imply that you would kill someone on purpose." It sounded like he wanted to say more, but he cut it off there. "I would like to see what you mean." He wanted to understand.

Oh, he'd kill people on purpose. But yeah, there you have it. He's not going to SAY it.

"Walk with me? We'll find some open space and I can demonstrate some of my magic to you."

Because he can spare a spell charge or two. But not more than that.

[Log] Same Shit, Different World

At the fountain, just for Nida

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

someday ara will have icons where he doesn't look mad

no subject