Mesdames et Messieurs, Voilà, C'est Vous

[lesmodsalouette]

Bievenue

You're wrapped in a soothing, all-encompassing darkness.

Well, perhaps not perfectly all-encompassing -- you can see some slivers of light here and there, just enough to realize that your current space is literally wrapped in something, and that you are a highly customized burrito at the mercy of an entirely too fluffy bed and set of blankets. Moreover: you are definitely not alone.

Depending upon the contents of your bed (two of you, waking up dressed exactly in what you wore last you remember back where each of you came from, in the exact same state as those last moments no matter how illogical or disjointed), it may not be comfortable or feasible to stay cocooned up for much longer. There's a low, muted GONG, GONGG coming from not far away, your bed creaks like a beleaguered ship in an unannounced storm, and it is joined by even more noises of movement beyond the bed canopy as you try to take stock of where you are.

Eventually, you either fall out of bed or drag yourself into this world: your new and strangely crowded personal rooms, the clock insistently sounding out the hour, and the halls and heraldry of the venerable Château Ambregris -- a lavishly decorated and fully furnished version of a more-or-less authentic French castle (assuming you know what France or a castle are).

Left to your own devices for the moment, you may find it helpful to explore the castle for your own purposes, check out the suspicious statues and personalized plaques in the Promenade of Reflexion, or perhaps to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious and frankly alarming amount of bread piled up in front of the place settings in the Banquet Hall. (Were you thinking of escaping? Any attempts to leave the property will be met with no forward progress at all, treadmill style). There's just about every kind of loaf, roll, boule, baguette, croissant or even animal-shaped bread you can think of stacked in baskets. There's absolutely nothing else save for plain bread, but at least you won't starve.

[OOC: Welcome to Château Ambregris, a perfectly normal castle receiving perfectly normal guests. Feel free to ask any questions in discord! The NPC Meet & Greet will be later today, March 8 at 6 PM EST/3 PM PST.]

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[coldseep]

Most of them are. Some of them aren't.

( very helpful answer )

Some of them have passions that take them into cities and settlements, and others follow their hearts to seclusion, where they're closer to their heritage of nature. Still...

( He chews on his bread contemplatively, finishing up his lizard and taking up another bread (this one looks like a cat). He pinches its cute fluffy limbs idly. )

Humans envy and fear anything magical - the way a little minnow fears a shark, but may wish it were not so weak and small. I've heard stories of wizards going into towns and getting chased out.

( Why look like something that hates you? ... And yet, they persist. )

But I think a part of us magical things envy humans, too.

[allrounder]

[ Hm, is that cat-shaped bread picked only because he's here? He wonders, but his gaze sticks to that piece of bread for no longer than a few seconds. ]

We've our own host of problems, but jealousy and fear over magic is not one of them.

[ Namely, the conflict lies with the more bestial races, a conflict that arises from cruelty and carelessness. That it wasn't present on the First was both a relief and eye-opening. ]

What causes your envy?

[coldseep]

Because humans form connections easily. I don't really get why, but magic things don't.

( He shrugs. He has no clue why it is the way it is - he'd think magical beings would find their own communities among nature, the way animals do. And yet humans and animals retain greater similarity - in finding among themselves community, where magic fails to heed their call.

He seems lost in thought for a second, lightly pinching his cat bread until it deflates, then again when it reinflates, before he returns to himself. )

What problems do you all have, then?

( He then momfs a bready cat ear then bites it off... )

[allrounder]

[ He raises his eyebrows. They don't? Power can cause rifts, that he knows well, and he wonders if that might be the cause for it. It's a thread that he's interested in picking up and pulling on, just to see what comes of it.

But...

Perhaps that wouldn't be the best thing to do, not right this moment. That the other man is so blasé about it is telling, too, in a way that tugs on his inquisitiveness, but he'll save it for later. ]

We've got the issues that arise from those who seek power—dangerous magical constructs, world-ruining spells, those who turn to a more powerful being to do their bidding. There is no end to it, really.

[coldseep]

( Huh... definitely problems way more complex than being lonely. Northerners had a problem with seeking power, but their scuffles were far less sophisticated than these (world-ruining spells...?) )

That sounds super complicated. What is it exactly that you're all fighting over?

( G'raha said "power," but Hwy seems to think that can't be it. Like??? duke it out and walk it off ??? (guy who doesn't know much about politics or cabals or cults or whatever... oblivious to mhyk main story shenanigans... all the mechanisms that come with people being in groups) )

You all live in big groups, right? ( He's assuming? Unless ?? ) Can't you talk it out?

[allrounder]

If only it were that easy!

[ He wonders... is this man one of the magical beings that have isolated themselves? It would make sense why he can't conceive of the way people will quickly resort to violence or why they would make decisions that would seem nonsensical to an outsider. ]

Some problems perpetuate over centuries. One cannot so easily talk out an issue that has plagued generations. 'Tis not to say we have not made progress through talks, but it has not always been so simple.

[coldseep]

( bigthink...... )

Well, I guess I can understand being upset about something for centuries.

( Personally. Across generations, though... Hmm... )

You must lose track of the point, right? Like, if someone's mad at you for a hundred years, ( that's a mortal lifespan... right... a hundred? ) then their... kid? and your kid are mad at each other because of that for another hundred years... they already probably don't totally get why you and the first person were mad at each other, right? Are the descendants mad just because, eventually?

( And while he comprehends broad human settlements and countries and bonds, he can't help but default to a small scale for these things - the inheritance extends down one person at a time, relationships no more complex than two people (give or take) upset with each other. )

It seems like it'd be simpler to call the whole thing off. Carrying a grudge without understanding why feels more like a curse, to me.

[allrounder]

[ While the broad sense of these things are more applicable, scaling it down is still just as viable. And honestly? Probably a lot easier to explain anyway. ]

You would be correct in that! Is being beleaguered in that way not a curse that one is passing on through generations? But you must remember, many of us have pride. Simply calling off a grudge that has festered for generations means that you've made the decision that all sacrifices made in the name of that grudge before carry no meaning.

[ He thinks back to the tomes on Ishgard, on the resistance to finding peace. There are illustrations of that very situation everywhere, truly. ]

Is that truly the case? Not necessarily, but many feel that way.

[coldseep]

( Pride, huh... )

Well, I guess I can understand that. Pride defines a lot of things in the land of my birth.

( Maybe he's carried a little bit of a curse, himself - both on a scale greater than the lives of mortals, and shorter than their endless generations. )

Then, how do you feel about all this? I'm an outsider, but you live with it all.

[allrounder]

'Tis a complicated question. I'm surprised you consider a stranger's opinion of value.

[ But, hmm... He'll have to think on it, lifting a hand up to his chin to sort through his feelings and memories. Years and years of thoughts and experiences and historical records— ]

I believe that anything that can be worked through should be, especially for the betterment of all. It may sting or it may reopen old, ancient wounds but moving forward is almost always the correct path.

[coldseep]

( hehe )

I like that. It's very noble. ( kinassigning g'raha central... ) I've lived a long time, but it's not like I know everything, or can speak on everything with authority. Every perspective is like a little shift of a kaleidoscope.

( Each turn all unique and fascinating. )

But, I guess, if there's anything I can speak on ... is that it's hard to be anything except what you are. Or, maybe that's just beings like me? Mortals may live a shorter time, but they do seem to change a lot in that span. ( From smooth to wrinkly... and change in other qualities. ) Maybe that means there's even less excuse to be stubborn about things?

[allrounder]

I believe so. Those of us who have less time to live should spend it with as few weights tying down our spirits as possible.

[ There's a touch of reflective softness to his voice, something that speaks deeper to his own ponderings on humanity. He's seen an entire generation come and go, changing as swiftly as the wind. It's an awe-inspiring thing. ]

You say you're long-lived. May I inquire as to how long?

[coldseep]

( He nods in agreement - a shorter life means you have so much less time to cover so much more ground! He supposes G'raha really does seem to make a hobby of pondering. )

Oh, me? ( in a tone of oh, you mean, l'il ol' me? with all the facetious boast that encompasses. ) Maybe a thousand thousand - maybe more, maybe less. When time passes like water through your fingers, it's easy to lose track.

[allrounder]

Even half past a century is easy to lose track of. Multiplying that so many times must make a year feel like a fleeting moment.

[ He likes things for him as they are now, each moment significant in its own way. ]

Are you immortal, then?

[ Not unlike the great wyrms... ]

[coldseep]

I guess it depends who you ask.

( He could just answer, but this is a more interesting way to approach it. )

What makes something "immortal" to you? A simple disinclination toward death - leading to a long, long life . . . or an inability to meet death, regardless of circumstance?

[allrounder]

[ Hmmm. ]

Living for an indeterminate amount of time, only brought to death through something that kills you. 'Tis how the immortal creatures I know live.

[coldseep]

( oooh, interesting )

Oh? What kind of creatures were they?

[allrounder]

The great wyrms, part of what is known as the first brood.

[coldseep]

Oh! They're similar to me, then.

( He smiles, seemingly delighted that there exist similar kin on other worlds - where all else is unfamiliar, some form of them persists, if in some parallel form. )

Me, I'm known as a dragon.

[allrounder]

Oh? I've never seen one quite so man-like as you.

[ Even the dragons back home are more... well, dragon-y. ]

[coldseep]

( hehe )

What do you think of this body? Nice, right?

( He preens, tossing back a whole thing of hair over his shoulder for dramatic effect. )

I can't speak for all of us, but most of us are pretty prideful about being what we are and looking how we look. But a wizard came around one day and poofed me into a person, and I thought it was pretty interesting. So I got someone to teach me how to do it myself.

( He bites off what remains of the breadcat's head, swallowing it in one go. )

Like, I'd never be able to bite off just the head of this while I was a dragon. I'd never get to pinch its little ears and tail, either. And my taste buds aren't as delicate. It's fun seeing how different you can experience the world depending on something as arbitrary as form, you know?

[allrounder]

[ ........He's going to pretend he didn't hear that question about his body. ]

I do see the merit in it, though I've never had the opportunity to do anything of that sort myself. Do you spend more time in this form, or in your original form?

[ Imagine if he'd been in his original form when transported here... how many fancy objects would he have broken? ]

[coldseep]

( get ur mind out of the gutter catboy he's a work of art )

Hmmm... 70:30, I'd say? I'm usually out in the ocean or in the sky, and it's much more fun to slither about, if you know what I mean. But if you approach someone like that, they get kinda spooked and run away, try to kill you . . . So I'll take up this look and bring along some mermaids when I'm playing on the shore.

[allrounder]

[ wow he's a pure innocent maiden that has never even conceived of gutters!! ]

It sounds as if you spend most of your time splashing in the waves.

[ Which is kind of cute, honestly??? He wishes he could see the sight of the dragons back home doing that. ]

[coldseep]

Uh-huh! I swim from one end of the sea to the other . . . from top to bottom . . . I play with the fish and the serpents and the mermaids and the kelpies . . .

( guy who can live forever uses it to just chill )

The landscape is always changing underwater, ( or maybe it just feels that way because he can lose track of decades easy, ) so there's always something new to see. The seas off the shores of different countries are all a little different, too - the spirits within each lend the waters a striking character. I'd love to take you on a tour, if I could... or maybe visit your seas and wyrms? That's a nice thought.

( He seems to mean it, too! Alas... )