Closed Nearer the sky.

[Ayosel]

She had been addressing Julan, having taken his rebuke and returning one of her own, but his apparent disinterest wasn't that much more offensive to her than his already irritating personality. Ayosel didn't understand children and certainly not ghost children. She was horribly wrong-footed when confronted by them for the second time. "He must find it fun, then," she said, side-eying the ghost in question as he flaunted his ability to handstand effortlessly over the water.

"I saw him go in," she answered the boy in the torrent of his interrogating, getting only a few words in before he went back onto his speculation. Ayosel was given a riveting performance of how quickly it could be to lose someone in roundabout self-talk, brow furrowing again as she did her best to hold onto his train of thought. Was she supposed to be paying attention to this whole thing or was some of it for Moritz and Julan? It took her a moment to realize he'd asked a question or two in there and she did so with a cock of her head. "Do you bathe?" She asked bluntly. "I've always wondered if people can feel things moving under water usually. If you stick your hand in and use the other to stir it, you'll feel the movement. Have you tried that? It's not your eyes that see the water moving."

She'd demonstrate, if he needed one. The water was the right degree of murky when properly disturbed, she'd know from her brief (perhaps not so brief) dip in.

Although Ayosel hadn't heard the words muttered under Moritz' breath, she did see the way his posture change and responded subtly with her own nuanced defensiveness. Leaning back, looking down at him imperiously, not at all trying to seem bulkier but larger in comparison, and only if he pushed in on her space. She wasn't even fully aware of her own defensive posturing and was rather confused by the sudden hostility... wariness? in his.

There was a brief moment where Ayosel could get a word in to respond to his torrent of words, a window of opportunity where she might be able to interject and ask what he was talking about, but he barrelled on about not needing to breathe--funny that he should say that because she'd never yet found a way to remain submerged indefinitely, despite attempts to correct that--and went right on into talking about undead and ghosts.

When it came to undead, here Ayosel knew something. A rumour. A haunting presence several years in the past, a witch-woman who crawled down into their den and made good with their queen. A dead woman who reeked of fury and who frightened snakelings into the loving coils of their queen-mothers. Ayosel knew of the undead only by hearsay and from the experience of other, more unfortunate constrictors, and she scowled to be compared to one.

"Dead or alive?" she asked after a moment of digesting what she was hearing now that he'd stopped and was taking a breath. A lot of it she'd missed, lost under the tide of unfamiliarity and too-fast-to-understand reasoning, but she thought she caught that. "You're alive."

She thought he might want to attack her, this child. While she would have happily smacked him if he came at her, hopefully to knock sense into his head, she didn't wish to end up on the wrong end of the Shinya who was bound to round the corner on them and make sure she wasn't stirring up trouble.

Ayosel spoke instead of act, though she did indeed inch just the barest bit back towards the water, defensive rather than aggressive. "Are you asking if killing me would be considered 'killing'?" She asked him, genuinely perplexed. Why would it not be, after all? "Some might consider it murder, in the right circles."

It might be more prudent for the Iyvess to slip into the pond and emerge from the other side, out of the boy's space and to some kind of safety. The chill of her clothes drying was sinking into her limbs and she'd much rather work them back to warmth than lose them to some potentially homicidal... ten year old? She didn't know how ages worked for smaller humans. He could be five, for all she knew.

[Moritz Craven]

At the woman's response about bathing Moritz was confused, not following the woman's example at all.

"I've bathed before, yes. But why would things be moving around inside the water? Like, as in your bathing with other things squirming around in it? When would I do that? No, I can't say I've done that. If I bathe its to take a bath, not to... Move things? Or whatever you said. Although that doesn't really seem to answer my actual question in anything but a rather limited and roundabout way..."

The more the two of them spoke the more Moritz began to wonder if the woman was simply obtuse, having trouble explaining herself, or if she simply was just lying repeatedly. Or if nothing else trying to conceal and misdirect things, and in so doing appear as if she was lying. Mortiz pondered this for a moment, but was unsure which if any of the possible reasons for their miscommunication was the actual reason.

Moritz frowned at the woman, beginning to wonder if she had a hearing problem. When he responded it was with the tone of someone explaining to a child why the sky was called the sky, with the child wanting a better explanation than the one given.

"What? When did I say that? Do you have an issue with your ears? I'm starting to think Julan has a point, you don't listen well..."

Lost in thought Mortiz continued, cocking his head as he continued to examine the woman.

"I didn't say I wanted to kill you. I said if you aren't alive, but aren't truly dead, then it'd probably be my duty to do so. Something to do with a family business, a long story. I never said that I wanted to. Honestly I'd rather not kill anyone, I'm rather against killing things. Even for eating. But if something isn't alive, I'd think killing it wouldn't be the same. Assuming you are the... Not alive but not dead, thing. Whatever the proper term is. Your answers or lack thereof on other things I've asked lead me to think that might be true, but you've not answered one way or the other on that either I suppose. So honestly I'm a bit confused at this point if you are or aren't."

"Also, you seem to be missing the point. I'm asking the proper term for killing something that's not alive, but not dead either. If something is dead, then it can't be killed as it already was. If something is alive, then... Destroying, or whatever, it, that'd be killing it. But if something is not properly alive, but also not properly dead and such, the term in place of killing for that, is the question I'm asking on what to call it."

Frowning in thought Mortiz realized the point of contention might lie at least partly on his train of thought, something that was fast moving at the best of times. Which led him to believe that his failing to explain his train of thought was part of the problem. Rather similar to a prior issue with his mother involving whether or not she killed or re-killed ghosts, skinned them and turned them into shoes, as a means of fueling magic. Of course in that case it had been a single unfamiliar word used which had a similar sounding word related to shoes that his mother had not bothered to explain properly.

This left Moritz with the unpleasurable realization that his interrogation might be failing in part due to his lacking in terms of asking the proper question and explaining himself. Which led Moritz to only a single straightforward fix for the problem. Explaining things.

"Right so... Let me explain... I've asked about the breathing, or holding your breath, several times. You seem to have been under water for a long time, much longer than seems normal. And you've avoided answering each time. Which makes me think one of a few things is possible. Perhaps you don't want to answer, and are hiding something about how you were not breathing. A trick, a secret, or something. Something you don't want to say. Two, you aren't good at listening and just did not understand the question, and if asked properly you would tell me. I suppose either of those could be proven true by answering the question on the breathing in a sufficient manner. Either one of those two though would not be so bad."

Pausing for emphasis Moritz held up three fingers, continuing to count off his lines of reasoning.

"Three. The reason you aren't answering the question is because you don't need to breath. If your alive, logically you would need to breath. However you don't seem dead, at least not properly, as you are moving around and talking and things. Which would mean if you aren't alive, not breathing, but aren't properly dead either, you'd need to be some not dead and not alive thing. Which I'm to understand my family, the Cravens, have some vaguely defined duty to not allow to continue existing. Something involving ghosts, a long history of Spiristist, and Dira the Goddess of death. I'll be honest I don't know the full specifics, but my mother does seem to talk about such things a lot even if not in full detail."

Meeting the woman's gaze Moritz considered her, noticing then that she was slowly moving back toward or nearer or into the water. Since he had already explained he did not know how to swim he was left to assume the woman thought it a good means of escaping from the boy.

"So if at all possible I'd prefer if you could answer and explain so as to prove the first, or even the second line correct. If not, It seems additional evidence that the third is true, that you aren't properly alive or dead. If that was true, I'm fairly certain I would need to tell people. But if its the first or second... If its a secret of some sort I give my word I won't go around telling people. I don't like lying, but I don't go around telling people things I said I wouldn't, not unless I have a very good reason."

WC: 1,043

[Ayosel]

The boy was needlessly complex and left Ayosel longing for the simplistic company of snakelings who sought only heat and food for comfort and didn't use heavy language to root out truth from a stranger. She was close to frustrated at this point and where a dhani mother might foist a contentious young dhani onto another close relative Ayosel was unable to do so. She felt as if she shouldn't have to stand there and be berated--questioned? interrogated? argued with?--by Moritz but was it appropriate to just turn the other way and leave or would he follow her? She stayed close to the water's edge, inclined to dip beneath and retreat for some peace and calm, but was just bemused enough to stick around and find out.

"Nuit," she said quietly during his roundabout way of rationalizing what she was and why she was being difficult. She knew that word once she'd had a moment to think about it during his rambling, heard it whispered in sibilant snake-tongue but remembered the sound well enough in common to replicate it. Not-alive and not-dead meant Nuit, a shambling corpse composed of deceit and threats that haunted deeper nests than her own. Her nose wrinkled.

"Some things are private, have you thought about that?" The dhani had managed to reconnect with what he was saying around the moment he started ticking off his three fingers, thinking the action arrogant but entertaining enough to snort... a little hostile now. "And you are nosy. I was let into Lhavit, they could tell you that," here the woman upnodded to the figure of a currently nameless Shinya man who'd rounded the path that she'd come down, probably to figure out why she was in the park for so long and coming to investigate her activity. "Are children always like you? Talking too much, too fast?"

Just a bit agitated, Ayosel let slip more of the hissing she'd been working on subduing, almost baring her teeth when the sound formed. It was an accent distinctly not Lhavitian that only ousted her as foreigner more than the tailing armsman did.

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz was unfamiliar with the word Nuit, unsure if the woman was cursing, answering his question, or just saying another single word response for some other fashion. Or perhaps she was saying knew-it, which sounded similar, and had somehow expected him to say what he had? This seemed the least likely in his own experience as few people seemed to expect what he was going to ask, perhaps excepting Kyra in his combat lessons. And even then his queries seemed to catch her off guard and leave her wondering how he had arrived at his question.

"Whats Nuit? Is that a word, or are you saying you knew something, as in you knew it? If the former, what does it mean?"

Moritz puzzled over her next query, thinking deeply for perhaps bit longer than was necessary for such a simple statement. This was mainly due to him taking it as an actual question, and not a statement as it perhaps was meant in part as.

"I think about a lot of things. I suppose I've thought about that before. Honestly though, I think privacy is a bit of an odd concept. Or at least one that only makes sense to humans. I mean you don't see an Okomo hiding things, or covering their body, but humans seem to think everything needs to be covered, feet imprisoned, and the like. There's a lot of things I just don't get that all humans seem to just agree on without questioning it... Or I suppose that's modesty, along with privacy... But yeah, I've thought on it but don't really agree. If its not relevant, I won't ask. If its relevant, then people shouldn't hide it. Since it only makes it seem like they did something wrong. Or they could explain why they can't explain it, but either way the important thing is clearing things up. I think making things more clear is more important than keeping things private."

From Moritz offhand statement it would be clear Moritz was saying he was not a human, talking about them as a group different from himself, though without making clear what he was instead of being a human.

"As for you being in the city, what does that have to do with anything? Just because something or someone was let in, doesn't mean they have no ill will and, or, belong, or aren't a criminal. I mean the Shinya exist. If they didn't let in any criminals, or anyone who shouldn't be here, then they wouldn't be needed would they? I'm not really sure what that line of reasoning is supposed to imply, that because your here you should be... And I mean, for all I know they let not dead not live being into the city. I don't know that there is a specific rule again it. But my issue as I said has more to do with family things, than a specific rule."

Moritz glanced at the direction the woman was pointing to, more looking out of his expanded peripheral vision and so not shifting his gaze too much. Moritz could not really tell from that distance who the person was, though he did not feel his questions would change should it be proven they were a Shinya,

"I'm Moritz, I'm my own thing, not someone else. And besides I'm.... Its spring, one two... I'm two years old, and I've not that I remember really met any other two year olds. So I can't say for sure none talk as I do. But I don't think most are talking or walking around normally though, but I mean that's humans so can't really directly compare. But I don't think I'm too much like many others I've met."

Frowning once more Moritz realized something, for once getting a bit annoyed.

"But hey, that's changing the subject! You still haven't answered my question! And honestly I'm finding it quite odd at this point, that you'd still be changing the subject and refusing to answer after all this. And suspicious. If you don't want so many questions, and so much talking, then maybe just answer my question!"

WC: 689

[Ayosel]

He kept going off on tangents, exploring trails of thought that she didn't share with him, resulting in Ayosel feeling disturbingly exhausted in the strangest emotional sense she'd ever been. 'Some things are private,' she had said. 'Tell me anyway,' he seemed to demand.

The dhani wet her lips anxiously, glancing at the Shinya who hung back as if supervising the interaction from afar; she didn't think he knew the boy, or didn't recognize him at least, and Ayosel wasn't going to actually drag him into the conversation (interrogation) to ask.

"Too much, too fast," she said once more, a softer echo of what she'd asked him just before. The distant gaze she'd adopted locked back onto the boy, her head tilted to send cascading black hair, still damp, down her shoulder. "I won't answer your question," said the woman with a note of finality. She didn't register much about the reveal that he wasn't human, shuffled under the passive acceptance that came with herself being nonhuman; it was enough that he looked like one, squawked like one, and she was more or less invested in dismissing him. "Ask someone else."

Flapping a dismissive hand, Ayosel moved to walk around him in a neat stride to leave the park.

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz frowned as he examined the woman, tensing up as the woman suddenly began to move. Seeing that she clearly planned to leave and not answer his query Moritz made a motion with his hand resting on his harness. He had almost forgotten why he had placed his hand there, but remembered then that it was the release for the harness. With a pull the harness grew loose and dropped to the ground with a small shove as Moritz stepped out of it.

During this he kept his eyes on the woman, finding himself alarmed by her behavior or more so lacking in answering his question. Too many coincidences had happened in quick succession, which left Moritz to reason they were not coincidences.

A plan, a attempt, an action, something worked out and done with intent. Whether it was true or not, and regardless of what was going on with the Shinya who seemed uninterested in coming nearer, Moritz felt a need to act.

As Ayosel stepped past him and began walking away Moritz undressed in short order, keeping his eyes on her but focusing more on his undressing. After his harness was his boots, and then much more quickly his shirt and pants and undergarment. Well practiced at shedding clothes as soon as he could and reaching for the freedom of not having his flesh ensconces in their cottony prison Moritz was able to undress surprisingly fast. But then he was motivated, both by the thought of being freed and of confronting the woman.

Barely a moment after his last article of clothing was shed, at this point Julan laughing and rolling around on the ground of the shore at something he found quite funny, Moritz shifted. A moment or less was all it took, an explosion of swirling magical light that occurred when a kelvic shifted. One moment Moritz stood there in his human form. Then more or less in that same moment, not even a blink of an eye later, as the light faded stood Moritz in his much larger Okomo form.

Admittedly he was not fully grown there either, of a size similar to a full grown Okomo but a bit on the skinny side. This was mostly obscured by his fur which was a bit thick and the same or thicker than most Okomo about Lhavit. But then fleshing out came with time and age, as did horn length which also marked him as young, and he was young as both an Okomo and a kelvic.

He did not directly or immediately move to attack, rather he avoided the subject altogether. Pushing forward with his legs Moritz leapt a Okomo hop off to the side of the woman, turning and making two more small hops at an angle until he came to rest beyond her, leaving once more Moritz on one side and the lake on the other of the woman. Once there Moritz would turn to face the woman, having landed far enough from her to make it clear he wasn't going to land on top of her.

Then with his somewhat limited Okomo vocabulary, or at least in what he could convey to human ears, Moritz loosed a loud "Aaaaah!" of his displeasure as he eyed the woman. His eyes were the one thing that had not changed, that and his pelts color pattern which more or less matches his hair. Everything else, physically at least, was quite different.

This was Moritz way of saying 'I'm not done talking! You haven't answered my question! How rude of you to just be dismissive and walk off!' Of course while this might make sense to an Okomo, much was lost in its conveyance into common.

WC: 620

[Ayosel]

In the most backwards way, Ayosel was offended.

She'd glanced back at him as he'd undressed, looking to identify the sound of his undressing. The sight was unflattering; if there was any saving the abrasive and intrusive personality he wore like a badge of honour it was utterly obliterated by the shedding of his clothes like so many bothersome weights. Perhaps Ayosel could relate; she wasn't fond of clothing either--but she possessed something he didn't and that was a keen sense of self-preservation.

The dhani turned her back to him once more in complete disinterest of oggling a naked child's body. The flash of light was something different and, wise as Ayosel was in the manner of self-preservation, she picked up the pace and hurried to the safety of an ever present watchful eye. 'See?' she wished to say to the Shinya, 'I didn't eat the annoying little human!'

That didn't stop her from nearly jumping out of her skin as the boy, in his other shape, jumped in front of her and bleated a loud cry of indignation. He looked like one of the goats native to Lhavit's area, the Okomo, and she shot a quick look behind her, first to the ghost and then to where Moritz had been standing, before looking at the goat again.

It seemed that this was going to happen whether or not she wanted it to.

"No," she told the boy firmly. "Stop." Were he to cry out at her again Ayosel would clap her hands loudly, again and again, until he stopped. She didn't care about the noise, she wasn't going to be intimidated by some shiny sparkly animal-boy who thought he knew better when he had his fit first. "I'm going home."

[Luminescence]

The Shinya had been hanging back for some time, keeping an eye on the situation, vaguely aware of Ayosel and wary of the rising voices. His hand went to his weapon as Ayosel hurried towards him, resting loosely on its hilt; not a threat, simply a precaution.

Ayosel stopped nearby, beginning to clap her hands loudly at the Kelvic okomo that charged after her braying, both sounds echoing throughout the park; neither had a chance to keep up their antics for long. "That's enough," the Shinya's voice cut through both the okomo's bleating and Ayosel's sharp claps. "Both of you."

"You're both disturbing the peace here. I don't know what you were talking about that has you both so riled up, but it doesn't matter. You," He pointed at Ayosel, "Should be mindful of what conversations you have, and how you speak to people." While he didn't know the topic of the conversation, it seemed clear the Shinya had pinned Ayosel as the instigator in his mind. "And you," this time, he pointed at the okomo Moritz. He'd watched him transform and knew full well there was an intelligent person within the creature's form.

"You do not get to charge people down and harass them because they've upset or annoyed you. Okomo or not, you're a citizen of this city and you have more knowledge and intelligence than those of your kind who are simply animals, and thus I expect you to behave as well as anyone else and follow the laws."

He cast an irritated eye over both of them. "Now, is this something that needs to be resolved? Or are you both going to leave and go your separate ways? I'm here to aid in settling disputes, but if you don't wish to do so, I expect both of you to leave immediately, and I'll be escorting one of you on the way out to make sure neither of you try to pick a fight again." The Shinya glanced at Ayosel as he said this, silently marking her as the one he would escort should the pair want to leave immediately instead of having him help settle their dispute.

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz bristled at her reaction, treating him- he felt- like a small child who had been screaming. Which he knew he was not. He had been patient. He had given her numerous chances to answer his question.

And instead she had been rude, ignored him, refused to clarify, and then finally just tried to walk off. The urge to headbutt the woman several times rose in his gut, an instinctive angry urge he managed to suppress. At least for the moment.

His rising anger was somewhat cut off though as the Shinya firmly reprimanded him, rising his head from the butting position it had been settling into- a sign for an Okomo of submitting to a degree. Or at least a sign of lessening aggression.. While he tended to be a logical person, he was still a person, and even he had his emotions get away from him. Though he still felt his reasoning was valid and his actions for the most part were merited.

Taking a calming breath Moritz paused, before finally beginning to reply. He spoke for several moments in a calm tone in an attempt to explain himself. However this was before realizing the only thing they'd be hearing was various "Aaah" and "Uuuh" sounds. With a exhale Moritz realized he would need to shift again if anyone besides an Okomo was to understand him. Willing the change Moritz shifted once more, a flash of light that lasted but a moment and yet did not even take that, replacing him once more with a child in the buff.

He still had anger in his eyes, and annoyance, though admittedly less than before. Of course his eyes being that of an Okomo albeit marked by his Iraso sight this was somewhat harder to read than a normal humans pupils. When he did talk it was with a calm and even voice, though admittedly one that seemed unclear in when it would finish.

"I did not charge her, or harass her as you said... 'Just because she upset or annoyed me'. Plenty of people annoy or upset me. I don't go charging them all down. But when I ask someone a simple question multiple times in a desire to clarify that she is not some not living and not dead.... Monster thing... Or whatever its called. And they proceed to ignore the question, be rude, change the subject, and then try to walk off without ever actually answering. Then yes, I do feel the need and right to go after them."

Turning to gaze at the woman Moritz pondered her once more, standing firmly as he changed his gaze from one adult to the other. The boy had no sense or need of modesty and certainly felt no lessened in his confidence for being unclothed.

Knowing the woman had already been told his piece, Moritz turned back tot he Shinya as he continued speaking.

"I'll be honest, the details are a bit vague as I've not been told the whole tale, but I know enough of my family history as a Craven that letting a not dead not living thing-whatever you call them- wander about isn't a good idea. From her actions and responses, or lack thereof, it seemed a likely and ever increasing possibility that she was one. But rather than answer my simple question she evaded, ignored, and finally tried to just end the conversation. All while never giving an actual answer to deny or explain things, which just seemed too increasingly indicate that the originally unlikely explanation for events I gave, which she neither denied nor explained, was true. If that isn't suspicious and due a escalation of things, then I don't know what is."

"When I came upon her with my ghost companion the two were rising from the water, having clearly been underwater for a good number of chimes since I did not see them till I had wandered about for a time and then stood at the water shore for a bit. I don't know about you, but I haven't ever tried to do an underwater breath holding contest with a ghost before, being that they are dead and don't need to breath."

As Moritz mentioned his ghost companion Julan the spirit, who had at some point come up upon them and was watching with some amount of silent glee, waved to the Shinya in greeting and a bit of excitement at being included in the explanation.

"All I wanted to know was how she could hold her breath so long, what her trick was to it or how she could explain it, or else if not holding her breath why she seemed to lack the need to breath as a normal person. Perhaps there is a simple answer. More likely than not the truth was something unimportant I would not have cared about. But it would have clarified things and explained what happened. But instead of answering such a simple thing, she ignored the question repeatedly, tried to change the subject, and then tried to simply leave without explaining anything."

"As I explained to her before, logically there is a reason for all that. The most likely that came to mind being that she had some trick or such to it, or some special ability that allowed her to do so. If so something somewhat of interest, as I'm always interested in learning new skills. Alternatively, as I explained before to her, another reason for it would be that she did not need to breath. As she is clearly not dead, not a ghost, but if not needing to breath then not alive, then if that line of logic was true then she was some sort of not dead and not living thing. A thing I pointed out to her. But still with that explained, she refused to answer or explain things. I believe most at that point would have either denied the accusation of my line of logic, or at least explained something. The more she ignored the topic though the more likely it seemed to make it clear that she was hiding something, and that the originally slim possibility was all the more possible."

Turning to the woman and back to the Shinya Moritz spoke with some finality, making it clear he was pausing in his endless speech, at least for the moment and if no one else spoke.

"Is it too much to ask with all of that in mind to answer a simple question properly and clarify a situation that was increasingly becoming more suspicious as she evaded and ignored things more? Particularly when all of that escalation and suspicion could be avoided by answering said question? And when the possible outcome was letting a not dead not living thing wander off to do whatever. I don't think so."

WC: 1,141

[Moritz Craven]

Grade Award!

Name:Moritz Craven
XP Award:

• Endurance 1
• Interrogation 4
• Intimidation 1
• Investigation 5
• Logic 5
• Meditation 1
• Observation 5
• Pathfinding 4
• Persuasion 4
• Planning 1
• Philosophy 2
• Running 1
• Socialization 1
• Tracking 2

Lores:

• People more spread out in parks than markets
• Pathfinding: Working out dead spots systematically
• Pathfinding: Telling apart one known and one unknown trail
• Interrogation: Bombarding with questions and info
• Park with a pond fully of squishy things in Lhavit
• Interrogation: Watch for questions not answered
• The dead don't need to breath
• Investigation: Honing in on avoided topics
• Philosophy: Is killing an undead killing?
• Interrogation: Giving out options
• Philosophy: The concept of privacy versus safety
• Interrogation Not letting the subject change the topic
• Intimidation: Using an Okomo's size and yell

---

Name: Ayosel
-Note appears PC is inactive and has not paid prior seasons expenses, please pm me if you return/become active and I will grade your section.