video;

[noctiphile]

Who: Mattias Larnaca
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: general waystation area?? vague hand gestures
When: April 22nd

[Lo and behold: Mattias fretting on a bench. It's not an obvious sort of motion, restricted to subtle shifts and twitching fingers, but it's noticeable enough to matter. He's hunched over the comm and what little the background shows is unrevealing. The corner of a building here, the awning of a kiosk there, everything unspecific.]

It's been quite a month, hasn't it? What with the attacks... [he drifts off, never very good with small talk. One of the many gifts he lacks.] It's been good to watch all the repairs. People working together... [Wow, he sure does suck at this. He chews his lip, glancing around as if looking for help. Nope. Nothing. Maybe he'll just get to the point.]

Still, tensions must be running high. Stress and such. Always have a way of sinking in. I've my own, of course. My ship fared poorly in the attacks and that—[He glances away, head sinking slightly.]—it's been the lesser of many events. I don't mean to complain but the effects are starting to wear. My usual methods aren't working. Reading—I just can't seem to concentrate and beyond that... Well. I've little else.

[He sighs, leaning back and running a hand through his hair. It messes it up a bit, but he's careful to smooth it back down.] It feels inappropriate to ask something so selfish but I'm at a loss. And there are a great many things that all of you know... [That I don't is heavily implied. He glances away, switching the comm to one hand so he can properly wring his wrist.] So, I was wondering—how do you cope? With... all of this. It doesn't have to be personal just. Just simple things. Like... jumping off a building. [Immediately, he scrunches his eyes closed.] —Bad example. But, you know what I mean.

[Fiddling nervously, he searches for something else to say, finds nothing, and cuts the feed. ]

Comments

[noctiphile]

I know how you meant it. [Goddess, it's too funny. Him? Magical? He bites back a laugh but can't stop the smile, shaking his head.] No, no. Goddess, no, I don't. Why? What brought that on?

[peacockherald]

You mentioned that you could feel the hostility of your crew mates. Considering others here have magical abilities, I thought that might be part of the problems you are having. Learning to shield would have done you more good in that case than my teaching you to meditate.

_{[ Vanyel had to carefully shield nearly one hundred percent of the time thanks to being an empathy and a telepath.}

His mouth twitched, laughing a little with the other, not sure why. ]

But I see now I misconstrued.

[noctiphile]

[Once he sees that twitch of the mouth, it feels safe. He laughs, light and airy, shaking his head.] No, no. I'm afraid the hostility on my ship is merely that palpable. It's like—[Oh! His eyes light up.]—Do you know of swamps?

[He says the word as if it's new.]

[peacockherald]

_{[ His eyebrows go up, wondering where this might be leading. ]}

Swamps? Yes, though I cannot say I have ever been through one. Well, not a true one, though certain areas I passed through after heavy rain might as well have been.

_{[ Yfandes had been most upset about that particular excursion, and had not been properly happy until he'd wiped her coat back to its proper snowy color. ]}

[noctiphile]

I've only learned of them recently and, well. With the VRD, it's amazing! I can wade through them! Almost feel it, too! It's delightful! You must try it—

[Ah. Wait. He had a point here. He clears his throat.] ... Anyway, the aggression on my ship is so thick you might as well be wading through one.

[peacockherald]

_{[ There's a moment where he's honestly a little taken aback, but... he smiles, letting out a softer laugh, amused at the other's enthusiasm for something so odd. ]}

It is an apt analogy.

I'm sorry the situation is so tense. Though if you like swamps so much, perhaps trying meditation in the VRD might not be a bad idea with a swamp setting.

_{[ Why the other liked them so much he could not say, but to each their own, yes? ]}

[noctiphile]

[He laughs again, ducking his head bashfully.]

Oh, no. I couldn't. I fear I'd be too excited. Such foreign landscapes are too stimulating. There's too much to discover. [which reminds him...] —Do you know of moss?

[peacockherald]

_{[ An interesting question. What world did this one come from that he did not know of moss? ]}

Yes, I know of moss. It can be quite useful, for navigation and some healing purposes.

... Is there no moss in your world?

[noctiphile]

Healing and navigation? Truly? [He can barely contain a smile.] How wonderful. I—No, there's none where I come from. Well, perhaps there is but I doubt many have seen it. Water, moisture—it's not common. To see worlds so green is a true privilege.

[He smiles at the camera then turns away again, bashful, embarrassed.]

Forgive me. You came to teach me of meditation and I've simply rambled. My excitement overwhelms sometimes. I didn't mean to bore you.

[peacockherald]

You are hardly boring.

_{[ The words are genuine, carrying a kind warmth. ]}

Moss is good for placing on wounds to staunch bleeding or use as covering if you cannot get to bandages right away. You can use it to keep track of the direction you've been going, make your way back through woods. Not completely reliable, but useful. You can also use moss to pack something fragile - like a glass bottle.

_{[ All things he'd learned over the course of nearly a decade training to become a Herald and being one. Amazing, the sorts of situations it put one through. ]}

[noctiphile]

[He listens, nodding in all the right places, being a respectable audience, but all the while a smirk creeps back to his lips.]

You're quite the expert in all sorts of areas, aren't you? [It comes on a low chuckle.] Is there anything else you'd like to enlighten me on?

[peacockherald]

_{[ A small laugh, reaching up to brush his hair back behind his ear - the side with the silver strand. Always that side. ]}

Not an expert, I would say. But I know a little bit about quite a few things. It is necessary in order for me to do my job, in my world.

_{[ And survive, in some cases. More than once he had spent weeks in a slow crawl along the border, avoiding detection as best he could, moss packed against his chest from some wound or another. ]}

If I can be said to be an expert in any area, it is my magic.

[noctiphile]

How convenient that I've taken a fondness to learning about it. [He smiles, chin resting on an open palm.] Explain it to me.

[peacockherald]

Magic?

_{[ Brows up, but he is not adverse to explaining it. It was only one of many of his Gifts. ]}

Ah, how to explain? It is a force I can call upon within myself, and I use it to control the forces around me. I can shield with air or strike with lightning, create protections. More rarely I can create Gates - doors, of a sort, that allow a person to travel between long distances in a single step.

_{[ But he did not like creating those. They hurt. They hurt so much. ]}

[noctiphile]

Gates? [Now, that's an intriguing prospect.] How far?

[peacockherald]

Leagues at a time, between whole countries even.

_{[ He'd used it to go to the Vale more than once, and another time to... to escape a dying castle. He'd tried, in Paradisa, but to no avail. He doubted the Gates would work well either either, and had no wish to suffer another backlash in the trying. ]}

[noctiphile]

[TOO FUCKING BAD VAN]

And planets?

[peacockherald]

_{[ Agony should be avoided, thank you. ]}

Planets? Ah... no, I never tried that. I... rightly did not know what those are until I came here.

[noctiphile]

That makes two of us.

Would you be willing to try?

[peacockherald]

_{[ Ah, that was the question. Willing? Perhaps. But to say he was more than a little afraid wouldn't be wrong. The consequences could be far reaching, least of all within himself. But, he had a thought of where this might be going, because he had thought the same too. ]}

Out of casual curiosity, or for some purpose?

[noctiphile]

There are people who want to return home. You've likely heard their plights. If you're able to create these gates it could very well be a first step to escape. It'd be selfish to hide such a useful skill.

[peacockherald]

_{[ He sighed, hating to break bad news. He always did, but giving a false hope such as this was the more cruel. ]}

I tried, once before - in the last world I was in. I tried to open a Gate home, and the magic recoiled on me instead. Whatever brought us here, whoever brought us - I highly doubt they would be unaware of my abilities and allow me to do such a thing.

[noctiphile]

It's not certain, though, is it? There's still a chance it could work. Isn't that chance worth testing?

[peacockherald]

Past experience says that it will be a doomed effort from the start.

_{[ And gods the pain. He did not Gate often back home, only when he had to. It made every magical nerve in him scream, and when it backlashed he might as well have been dying. He'd been sick for well over a week recovering from pain and the magic sickness, burning a bright fever. The risks far outweighed reward. ]}

[noctiphile]

So you'll let one failure stop you. [He doesn't attempt to hide his disappointment but at least he hides the scorn.] Very well. Do as you see fit.

I'll attempt the meditation. Thank you for the suggestion. [Kind words that he delivers shortly. Someone might be more than slightly annoyed.]