aterat | Loud seal is loud

Entry tags:

Loud seal is loud

Who; Caelan and you!
What; Open log
Where; Assorted Locations! (Red Building Common Space, Red Building his Apartment, Market, Gullwings Office, and the Harbour/Shore)
When; Throughout August, vaguely specified on each prompt.
Warnings; No, but I will edit if anything comes up!

Common Space - Early August

The common space was generally one that Caelan frequented since his arrival, a social creature by nature and necessity to keep himself occupied 90% of the time. He saw it as a good opportunity to get to know his neighbours without actively having to seek them out, to watch them moving in and out of the building and go about their days.

Today found the selkie draped comfortably over one of the chairs, a new violin settled comfortably in his hands as he worked at tuning the new instrument to his liking. Occasionally he’d draw the bow across the stings, testing them out before he resumed what he was doing with the odd thoughtful hum, pleased or disappointed depending on the results.

Still, his mood is clearly good today. Caelan is often smiling, often pleasant company and quick to laugh; but today there’s something about it that it feels far more genuine than it has been. He’d been a few weeks without both an instrument or his usual sense of purpose, but things were decidedly starting to look up what with the morning’s surprise left outside his door.

Market - All through the month!

There was one more musician that could be heard in the market these days. Dressed up, all shiny in his usual accessories and finery, hair pulled back into glittering pins.

Caelan had take to joining in the street performers when they didn’t mind his presence, or setting himself up on an empty corner or near the fountain square when the mood struck. The life and the surrounding energy tended to inspire, and people seemed to like the songs he brought with him from home. Some were familiar enough to those who knew the classical world well, while others had a certain life and rough edge that was more the music of the common folk.

If you were lucky, polite, or simply caught his interest, he would even be inspired take requests. “What’ll it be? Ye look to be in the mood for a particular sound, or are ye just going to stand there gawking?” He spoke up with a grin, cheeks lifted in utter delight and relaxed amusement.

Gullwings Office - Early to Mid!

Caelan still wasn’t entirely sure how this had happened (beyond the obvious, of course). This wasn’t his usual gig, nor was it his usual crowd.

Here he was though, meandering around the Gullwings office like he belonged there. Checking out the furnishings (he had to hand it to Yuna, the place was nice), stopping to chat with whoever happened to be there that day, looking at his desk and wondering what on earth he was going to do with it.

That last thing wasn’t entirely difficult, he’d already shoved some blank sheet music in a drawer to amuse himself on slow days when he didn’t have anything to do. There was also the matter of copying and detailing the maps and blueprints that the directory had given him so Yuna could store the originals away for safe keeping.

He was hoping to at least be able to add to them, to include some rough outlines of the sewers paths between their access points as he and Yuna made a trip down to explore them.

Until then, he was quite available to get to know the group a little better. Getting a feel for personalities, trying to glimpse how they operated, and looking for anything to suggest he might not be able to trust someone.

Harbour/Shoreline - For Holly. Let the Spider-Man meme commence! - Anytime in August, probably late evening after all the respectable people have gone home for the day.

There was a lot about the harbour district that disturbed Caelan for obvious reasons, but he had also found there were quite a few things about it to appreciate.

Once the sun had been down for a few hours the amount of people travelling the docks lessened considerably, which meant a little more privacy for him to do one of the things (aside from his music or thieving) that he did best. Fishing. It was going to save him quite a bit of money, unless he felt like eating something at a restaurant in the company of others.

These waters appeared to be very well stocked with fish, so as long as he didn’t go so far as to be near the reefs where some particularly large and nasty creatures dwelt, he could fish to his content. Feed up, and perhaps even bring some fish home for those who had endeared themselves enough to him to bring back a decent sized catch of fish or crustaceans depending on their tastes.

Tonight was no exception, his clothes folded neatly behind some rocks as he donned his more natural attire to enjoy that other half of his soul. So, as the moon rose higher in the sky, there was a form swimming around in the waters. Diving here, coming up there, a soft song carried over the breeze occasionally, and sometimes a splash could be heard as the being caught something in its grasp.

It’s 3AM, oops. - ... Probably all through the month unless someone does something about it. Sorry Red Building.

Caelan had a very irregular sleep schedule, he stayed up late and slept in just as late. Should he get that shifted now that he was in another world and joining a group for exploring and helping out around the city?

Yes, yes he should.

Would he actually do that?

Probably not.

So the selkie tended to keep very odd hours. Thus far that hadn’t really been obvious aside from the later hour that he left his dorm room during the day (Around 11:30 every day like clockwork). Once Caelan had an instrument, that might have been a different story depending on the person and their ability to ignore noise at strange hours.

Sometime around three in the morning, the red building would be treated to the sounds of a violin being played. The piece was strange in tone, energy fluctuating at random, it was honestly the kind of song one might have been warned off of following if it was heard near the caves of their local beach or along the river beds of the forests they lived near. Fae music, intended to be played by theirs ands alone and rarely heard by humans.

Caelan was feeling homesick, whether he’d admit it to anyone or not. On nights where he felt just a touch too disconnected from his life, he could be found playing the music his best friend had taught him or working on his own compositions. Sheet music spread across the table, and a bottle of whiskey sitting open next to that.

If you’re curious enough, or annoyed enough, knock at his door. He’d be happy to have the company, and he’d be happy to share the alcohol.

Wildcard/Other
Is there something I forgot? Did you have something specific in mind? Throw it at me! I’d be delighted!

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"Thanks."

Nida's out through the window. Takes him a minute to get back to his room and changed before he's back out through the window until he drops to the ground behind Caelan.

"Hey."

Caelan doesn’t really look all that surprised by the sudden appearance of Nida dropping down behind him, either because he expected it or because he just had extremely good nerves. He turned on his heel with a small whirl of his long coat, a bright grin on his face. “Well, fancy meeting you here.”

He joked lightly, before gesturing for Nida to join him. “Did you have a direction in mind, or are we just wandering while you tell me your tale?”

"You know you missed me," Nida grins. But the smile just... fades quickly.

"Meandering works," Nida says, his eyes casting skyward. Not a full moon. Good

“You’re right!” He responded with a light tone, surprisingly genuine. After all, he’d been looking forward to the walk.

Then the smile faded and Caelan fell into step next to his friend. How curious... His mood seemed to shift rather easily, he wondered what it was. “So... What of the moon?” He asked, eyes glancing up at the sky when Nida’s had. It was very curious behaviour, he knew a few creatures in his own world that didn’t like the moon overly much because of the complications it caused... But he himself certainly had no issue with it.

"The moon that circles my planet is trying to kill us. It's not intentional or anything, but it happens anyway," Nida admits, casting a distrustful gaze skyward. "Monsters come from the moon. They corrupt natural life forms, drive natural creatures like dragons mad. It's... complicated and painful for us. Very few large animals that are not specifically managed by us remain on our world. It's all... changed."

No bears. But there sure as hell were Wendigos. No horses. But they had mezmerizes. Then again, they'd never had horses.

"It's beautiful. And deadly."

“No wonder you don’t like the moon.” He responded, glancing up again before returning his attention to Nida. “Was it always like that, or was it triggered somehow?” If, whatever it was about the moon that corrupted natural life forms, it was hard to believe it was normal.

Caelan head tilted slightly, wondering on the idea that dragons were apparently common knowledge and considered natural. It made him wonder what other beings might have existed in Nida’s world, and if the moon effected them so negatively as well.

"No one knows. But every now and then, a Lunar Cry happens. It's what we call the points where monsters fall from the moon to our planet surface. It happens when there is a serious build up of monsters, they do that. Or... there are ways to cause it artificially."

But he's left sighing. Yeah, monsters are a mess, and he hates it.

"My theory has always been that was a final punishment from Hyne."

Caelan would have asked why on earth anyone would cause such an event artificially... But that was pretty obvious. There were always people who either wanted to try something to prove that they could, or because they could benefit from it... A frown deepened, he knew people like that well. “I can imagine how messy such a thing would be to deal with, especially if someone causes it on purpose. Is there a reason this Hyne would punish your world?”

He presumed that Hyne was a deity, or at least something mighty enough to hold power over the world. There were such beings, things that required respect or payment in the fae realm to ensure a continued prosperity, but he couldn’t help but wonder what would cause them to do such a thing to Nida’s world.

"Revenge for defeating him?" Nida suggests with a shrug as he walks. "Long, long before my time, long enough back that it's mostly considered myth, people got into a war with our creator. And won. Or so we're told. He agreed to give humanity half of his power before leaving the world. Legends say he left only his body behind, dead and useless, while his power itself left. Perhaps his power went to the moon, to make things and taint it. To curse us."

“Ah... Yes, I suppose that would do it.” Beings of great power tended to be rather proud and prone to anger when those they considered lesser bested them. “So now you and everyone else is stuck cleaning up the mess?”

Caelan thought back on his own world, “Moon doesn’t really do anything like that where I’m from, it... thins things a bit. The paths that separate the mundane world from the other, when it’s at its fullest. At least that’s what people say whenever it lights up the night sky.”

"The organization I work with does a lot of clean up with this," Nida explains.

With that said he strolls along slowly, thoughtfully.

"It's a bad thing, that has destroyed continents. And I feel awkward over the whole thing even now. The moon, it's beautiful. It's useful. And it's not comforting."

“So on top of everything, it’s your job to tidy things up when it gets bad...” Caelan frowned a little, following Nida along as they walked. “I can see how it’d be anything but a comfort then. Hard to enjoy something when it only makes your life more difficult.”

Tilting his head back, he looked at the moon in the sky as if to appraise it. “It seems fairly average here so far? Pushes and pulls the tides, lights up the sky, all as it should.” Something he’d keep an eye on now though, after all this was a strange place.

(I’m totally cool with hand waving this where it’s so old if you want to get to new things in October. Just didn’t want to leave any of our stuff untagged! <3)

Sort of. It’s more like... they were hired to hunt monsters. But he considers it clean up.

“Average for you and most worlds I’ve seen. In some places I got known by people as the person paranoid about the moon.”

And really, it made sense. He hadn’t known that the moon might NOT try and kill people more or less. He didn’t know how to deal with a passive, ambivalent moon.

“It’s always been a pretty, distant, murder orb to me.”

Caelan scrunched his nose a bit at that. People... So rude when it came to things they didn’t (or couldn’t) understand. “Can’t help being paranoid about a thing you’re used to being dangerous. How is anyone to know what holds true from one world to the next? Just good sense, you know?”

Rolling his shoulders lightly, he continued with a lighter expression. “Bet there’s plenty of things that I’d take issue with that others would find weird.” And wasn’t that the truth.

Finally, turning his attention away from the sky and back to Nida, he smiled a little. “If we’re lucky though, it’ll be more like the moon in my world than yours. Luckier still if it’s entirely ‘normal’ like in those other worlds.”

Well, at least Caelan gets it. But he's raising an intrigued eyebrow at the specific phrasing Caelan uses.

"And what is the moon in your world like?"

Of course, he gets it. One day Caelan would probably have to explain why he got the idea of fears or negative associations with things that others wouldn’t understand. That day wasn’t this one though, and he’s happy to answer questions about the moon instead.

Gesturing at the sky, he responded with a lighter tone. “In my world, it still controls things like the tides... But, as I said earlier, it does thin things a bit on occasion. Certain moon phases makes that which was disconnected, overlap instead?”

He had more the tone of a story teller than that of a teacher as he continued, “In my world, there are several realms. The ‘normal’ realm, for a lack of a better term, where humans live and go about their lives. Then there are others, the most notable being that of the fae. Usually they’re separate, connected only by hidden roads of magic. You can only get through to them through enchanted doorways, usually only found in specific places. Sometimes if you’re lucky (or unlucky) you might find one, and the means to unlock it.”

Caelan turned his attention back to the moon, “Then you have certain nights, when the conditions with the moon are right, and the boundaries just... dissolve in a way. Those are the nights that you’re cautioned against going out and following music that doesn’t sound like any human has ever played, to avoid strange gatherings full of guests that seem a little too welcoming.”

He arched brow, tone turning almost theatrical, “After those nights, if people are missing then it’s often said the fair-folk whisked them away for a while.”

What interesting stories. And Nida doesn't fully know what he wants to do with them. They're like old folk tales, but the fact was that the tales didn't have any resemblance to truth in his world.

"The fair-folk sound a bit sinister. But I've seen humans do the same. Sorceresses actually. Just lure people away through the power of their magic."

Caelan smiled a little at the response. Sinister wasn’t entirely accurate, at least in his opinion, but he couldn’t blame the man for saying so. “Some of them are, some of them aren’t. All depends on the sort who’s gathering you run into, if you break the rules, or if you offend them.”

So many stupid rules, most of which he was sometimes certain were made purely to complicate matters and confuse humans. “There are many who are said to be sent back after they’ve had their little adventure though, sometimes with gifts and sometimes with curses. So... Like I said, not all good, but certainly not all bad.”

He hummed a little, “But that’s about the most that the moon is said to complicate things in my world.”

"Honestly, that almost sounds exciting," Nida admits as he smiles at the selkie. The fae that he doesn't know is fae. "My world isn't prone to wonder stories that are happy. I guess it comes from Hyne trying to wipe us all out."

“It has certainly made for some excellent stories over the years. If I had to guess, you probably would do alright in an encounter.” Grinning a bit, he says this with confidence simply because he knows it to be fact. At least where he was concerned, he couldn’t speak for other fae.

If only he would stop being a silly little seal man and say it.

It was unfortunate though, that Nida’s world was so different... “Is there nothing aside from the monsters brought about by the moon then? It would certainly make it hard to weave a tale that ends well.”

Oh, would he? That would be very interesting, would it not? Nida was normally so very careful with the things he says. Harder to sell his soul that way.

"Nothing but monsters. And even that is bad, because if you don't run into monsters, they do run into wildlife. Which corrupts them. My world hasn't had bears in centuries, they're in children's books, because the Lunar Cry corrupted them into Wendigos."

Caelan frowned a little more deeply, that spoke of a very great unbalance. To have nature so heavily corrupted by monsters that they lost entire species... “That’s no good. Although I admit I am not unfamiliar with the term ‘Wendigo?’ Not knowledgeable of course, they aren’t beings of my land, but one across the sea.” What an odd thing. “And undoubtedly they’re quite different as well.”

That said... “Does make me wonder what other things share similar names between the many worlds.” Such as if there was, or had ever been, anything like the fae in Nida’s world. Seal folk, perhaps. Caelan did suppose it might be better to not know. If the sounds of what happened because of the monsters were anything to go by, he might not like the answer.

“They eat people,” Nida explains. That’s the best explanation he can give for it. “Some bears became Death Claws I suppose. Or maybe Wendigos were apes? I don’t know.”

Nida’s hands settle into his pockets and he scuffs his boots against the ground.

“My world sucks.”

“Well, that does sound a little more on the mark of what I know, they do hunt people.” Whatever the Wendigos in Nida’s world originally were, it was sad that they were so different now.

Caelan does make a face for a moment, if only to think about what Nida had said. Luckily with or without the context of the conversation, he’d spent enough time around Holly to understand what one meant when they used the word that way. “It certainly sounds as though it does. Is there nothing about it that you enjoy?”

“The only place in my world that seems safe from these changes is the seas,” Nida admits with a shrug. Because, you know, something about the waters kept things safe.

“I... I liked airships.”

Loud seal is loud

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okay but what if ftb with Nida spending the next several hours on this topic?

haha that absolutely works, Caelan will probably keep him talking about this for a while anyway