+1 tiny invisible child

[nerdeology]

Who: Mikleo, OTA
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Huntress, Iskaulit
When: Now-ish!



( video; )

[The communicator comes on with a shaking motion, revealing a captain-sized bedroom decorated with various nerdery; those who've been there will recognize it as Mikleo's. That fact is fully cemented when the camera zeros in on Sorey, asleep on the bed with the sheets half-kicked. The communicator is juggled around, then back again, zooming in and out as if being played with by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. It's quiet for a long moment until at last a voice speaks up- young, maybe six or seven, sounding incredulous and very confused.]

How long... did I sleep...

[Sorey stirs then, and the voice yelps quietly and rolls off the bed, communicator turning off in the process.]


( action; huntress )

[There's a little boy wandering cautiously through the halls, poking into rooms if the door is unlocked, gawking at just about everything he sees. He'll be initially shy around strangers, especially any non-seraph and extra especially around humans, but he's a curious sort, so expect to be grilled for information once you prove to be harmless.]


( action; iskaulit )

[At some point he'll make his way over to the other ship, courtesy of one of his shipmates, and that's when the exploring really begins. He'll get into everything he possibly can in this place- every open and available room, every nook and cranny, even the accessible vents, here and there. He's in the library (oh, the library), the garden, the interfaith center, his water room. He's clearly not afraid to poke around unknown places, either.

Just like on the Huntress, the presence of others will make him wary, and humans (or those who carry some malevolence) will get double-caution out of him, but curiosity won't kill this cat. That's the idea, anyway.

Sorey's probably nearby, being the hovery-protective sort that he is, but that's mostly so any malevolence doesn't cause a problem. Mikleo's no longer protected through the sub lord pact, after all.

He may also be accompanied by a baby pengyon, toddling along behind him. Just because.]


((ooc: so yeah mikleo's de-aged for a while, thanks to an augment glitch! he's invisible on camera and his permissions for seeing him in person are here! by now he should be visible to his whole crew. ))

Comments

i refuse

[nerdeology]

...Yeah, I buy that. Shiron kinda comes and goes even though he lives with us- he's the one who goes for supplies when Gramps needs somebody to leave his domain.

[wind seraphim are WEIRD. he loves them, but they're weird.]

Merchants... they were humans?

JE REFUSE

[sylphystia]

[Dezel lets a smile slip. The way Mikleo asks it is so innocent, but Dezel knows the truth. They're a pair of seraphim who undoubtedly, unquestioningly, love their humans to the end of the world. There's some solace in that... and some sadness, but Dezel can't say he regrets Rose at all.]

Yeah. They're pretty tight-knit. Their leader is kind and fair, and she won't hesitate to help someone in need-- not like the usual peddlers who only care about turning a profit.

[nerdeology]

[wow... Sorey's dreamed about seraphim and humans living together ever since they first read the Celestial Record, but here they are, already doing it back home! Does Sorey know? Sorey knows this guy, so he has to know, surely.]

Did they know you were there?

[sylphystia]

[Dezel shakes his head. Rose is... complicated. He'd rather not teach Mikleo that humans are terrified of seraphim for existing. He can find that out on his own.]

Not really, but they remembered the old ways. They'd leave us a little offering or a prayer every once in a while.

[nerdeology]

Wow... I didn't know they still did that. Gramps says everyone forgot about us- that they're full of malevolence, and the world's going bad. Sorey still wants to see it, but it sounds scary sometimes. Are you ever scared?

[Of the outside world, anyway.]

[sylphystia]

[Dezel is quiet for a moment, seemingly staring into space.]

He's not wrong. But just because it's bad right now doesn't mean it can't be saved.

There are still believers. They just need... They need a Shepherd.

[nerdeology]

That's asking for a lot. The Celestial Record says there hasn't been a Shepherd for 200 years.

[It's not like it sounds hopeless, but... yikes. Humans don't even live that long.]

[sylphystia]

I'm sure the Celestial Record says a lot of things, but you can't assume everything you read is true.

[He pops his hat off and plonks it down on Mikleo's head like he has so many times before. This time, it's a deliberate gesture to make it hard for him to see.]

Looks can be deceiving. [A pause.] Books. I meant... [Ugh.] I ruined it.

[He completely flubbed that joke but he goes on anyway.]

Who cares about saving the world... You've got a dream or something, right? So go out there and do it. See for yourself what kind of world we live in.

[nerdeology]

We were gonna, one day... well, we started talking about it.

[Mikleo reaches to touch the brim, lifting it up; it's much too big for his little head. With the hat out of the way, though, he looks up and notices-]

Wow, your eyes...

[sylphystia]

You will.

[Dezel always seems to get that reaction. Mikleo is still young; maybe he's never met a blind seraph before. Dezel's certainly never met another one, though he's sure they exist.]

Are they scary? [He tracks somewhere just above Mikleo's head. He's very close, he's just not used to the tinier version of Meebo yet.] Don't feel bad for me. I can still see, just in a different way.

[nerdeology]

I'm not scared.

[He answers perhaps a little too quickly, ducking the hat down lower again as he feels the wind pass over his head. It feels different from the wind artes he's used to- not Myrna's motherly care, not Loanna's seriousness or Shiron's cynicism. It was different, something harsh and gentle at the same time. He can't really parse it.

Instead he leans in closer to get a better look. Fear's never stopped him from being nosy and inquisitive, and this is something he's never seen before.]

I didn't know that could happen to a seraph.

[sylphystia]

Sure you aren't.

[He can tell Mikleo is leaning closer. Thanks to the calibrations, he knows exactly what kind of expression tiny Mikleo is making: lavender eyes wide, hands on the edge of his seat. Dezel's smile twitches wider, unbidden, before he sobers a little.]

A hellion took my sight. At first I was pretty pathetic without my eyes, but I'd decided by then that I'd do anything to survive. I relied on the wind instead of my weapon. Eventually I learned how to read it better than the birds do.

[nerdeology]

[Mikleo stares a bit longer, watching for any sign that Dezel can see what he's doing, and while the blank gaze reveals nothing he can feel the air moving around them. He can see with that...?]

That's... so cool.

[His voice is hushed, utterly fascinated. The hat's probably lopsided on his head now but he doesn't care, too distracted by that suddenly feeling of what the heck that's amazing.]

[sylphystia]

[He's a bit surprised to hear that from Mikleo of all people. Is that what he really thought? Well, Dezel probably lost points with how he acted towards Sorey at first.

But he had to be sure.]

I think you could learn.

[He already knows Mikleo can learn but there's no point in spoiling the future for him, really.]

[nerdeology]

What? No way! I'm a water seraph, I can't move the wind.

[sylphystia]

Wind and water might be neutral to each other, but that doesn't mean they don't interact. [He leans forward a bit.] There's usually water in the air. It's that heaviness right before it rains, or the suffocating feeling all around you when a thunderstorm is about to crack open... Sometimes it's part of a fog that makes your clothes cling to your skin.

Think outside the box, kid.

[nerdeology]

[omg don't call me kid

Mikleo pauses for a long moment, closing his eyes, feeling it out. Before too long, though, he huffs and shakes his head.]

It's not gonna work. I can feel it, kinda, but I'm not so good at seraphic artes yet.

[sylphystia]

You'll get there.

[He considers. If Mikleo doesn't totally trust him yet... this won't go over well. But he's also feeling like Mikleo will eventually become restless and get into trouble, and Dezel wants to stave that off for as long as possible.]

We should be close to a waystation. They usually have some space inside. That way I can give you a little taste of what it's like to be a wind seraph.

[nerdeology]

[Mikleo tilts his head, thoughtful and borderline excited; this could be interesting??]

What's a waystation?

[sylphystia]

A waystation is like a little island. People made it so you can restock on supplies and stretch your legs, since you can't do that on this kind of ship. It's nothing exciting and the air tastes fake, but it'll work for this.

[nerdeology]

Whoa... yeah, I wanna see one, then!

[He's never been to an island before. Space islands must be even cooler!]

[sylphystia]

[He ponders telling Sorey. Then he decides it's best to just not bother because they won't be gone long and he's not going to launch the bitty into outer space.]

Better than a metal box, right?

[You're about to be hella disappointed, kid. He hops off the box he'd been sitting on and heads toward where they keep the shuttles.]

[nerdeology]

[Mikleo starts to follow along, eager and curious, though he pauses before they can actually get in.]

What about Sorey? Won't he be worried?

[sylphystia]

He'll know where we are.

[How long can he get away with not talking about the pact? Probably not long. In the meantime, he opens the door to the shuffle and motions for Mikleo to get in.]

Here, sit down. There's some strappy thing... you need to put it on. [He fumbles around for the seatbelt.] I don't want you bumping into the hull when we start moving.

[The autopilot on these things isn't the greatest.]

[nerdeology]

[It's hard to argue about something when you don't know anything, so while he has doubts, he climbs in and does as instructed. Curiosity is a powerful thing indeed, and wind seraphim are usually good for weird experiences. Probably some ingrained thing about their element.]

What's this thing do?