Ridiculous. Utterly Ridiculous. [Soothing Waters] [Open]

[Asara Willow]

"Only those that are not Symenestra can fall off a web. They are referred to as 'Dra' in normal conversation, and they are half bloods with the painted appearance of a Symenestra but all the abilities of a human. Only Symenestra can easily enter Kalinor. You'd need help and someone to make sure no one killed you." A smile tilted her pale lips in humour. She would probably need to explain what being a half blood in Kalinor entitled a person too, but really... The Symenestra race was sneered at enough without having to be frowned at for being racist themselves.

She frowned at having him confirm that people looked at teeth to identify slaves and horses. What the heck were teeth supposed to tell? In a Symenestra, teeth told the hunger, the irritation, of the person. Humans didn't share that trait. "Maybe you are bigger than me, but I can still bite you and you will still die. Painfully." She smiled to take any barb from her words. She'd lost the desire to kill him with their conversation. Her excuse to herself? He was a Knight and would have friends to look for her, and she'd really have to leave lest she be caught and broken. When he jumped up, almost flashing her shocked face with something she wasn't certain of seeing, she almost snorted and laughed. "Sit down before you cause a scene, human. I mean, Lucas. You don't want to get banned from this place do you? I know I don't."

She smirked at him, showing the fangs her race boasted famously. She was hungry for real, even if not for man flesh, and soon she'd have to go hunt down some food or risk having to spit out her venom every so often, which was most certainly not ladylike in the least.

"You aren't preaching yet. If you were in uniform you'd be different and braver, you'd shove me aside in a street if I stood in front of you and you'd scowl and watch me intently, as though I were about to kidnap one of your females for my brothers. Syliran Knights give no quarter to me. You may say you are a hero in training, but I say you'll end up like them." She leaned back before her words grew sharper with her anger at the Knights. If he had any sense, he'd see she disliked them greatly as he had thought, but not just because of who they are, but because of how they treated her. "Also... If you tried to hurt me, or irritated me enough, I'd bite you. And I'm hungry, so that bite would almost certainly result in you dying and me running for my little life." Her voice turned bitter to the end.

"As I may have said, I do not know much about Kalinor. I can barely remember it, not for the fading of time but because of something else. I know you'd need a Symenestra to get in and around, and perhaps to tell the others that you aren't there to steal back their surrogates. Those women are protected dearly. They are the only reason we still live."

[Lucas Arias]

„Would I be a „Dra“ as well?“ Lucas asked and frowned. He didn’t like that little syllabe particularly. It sounded as if Asara didn’t think too highly of halfbloods, as if they were worth less than fullblooded Symenestra. „Would I be Dra-Lucas, or just Lucas, the blundering, idiotic human who should probably fall off a web?“ As she mentioned that he would need help getting into Kalinor, he frowned even more. „Is there no way a human can walk through Kalinor unaccompagnied?“ he wanted to know. He didn’t find the thought of a venomous Symenestra chaperone particularly appealing. It would probably make him feel like a child all over again, and he was tired of being treated like a child. He was an adult! Besides, where would the fun in that be? „Could you really kill me with your bite?“ he asked doubtfully. He found himself drawn to her fangs again, wishing he’d have a pair of fangs of his own so that he could just poison his enemies! It would solve so many problems! As she asked him to sit down again because he’d almost flashed her, the boy’s head turned as red as a tomato, and then he gave her a somewhat embarrassed grin and sat down again like an obedient little human that was facing a proud Symenestra should. „Causing a scene could actually be kind of fun – somebody needs to shake those people up a little – but I’d rather not get banned“, he remarked. „I like it here.“ „I’d never shove you aside“, he insisted. „I don’t discriminate against Symenestra. Everybody does that. It’s no fun! Besides, there are no females in my family apart from my mother, and she’s kind of old. Almost fifty. I don’t think she can have babies anymore. If I ever become like the knights, feel free to slap me or beat me up a bit. I mean it.“ Judging by the tone of his voice it was obvious that he wasn’t the knights‘ biggest fan either even though he was a squire. He thought them dull, boring and misguided more often than not. If he ever became a knight, he’d be completely different from them! No matter how much Asara thought that he would end up like them! „If you are hungry ...“ he murmurred. „Shall we leave the bath, and I’ll buy you something to eat? I don’t want you to accidentially kill anybody ...“

[Asara Willow]

Asara almost felt the urge to laugh at his tone, but she didn't know how he'd react. She didn't feel the need to offend him, nor placate him even if she did. She wasn't a human-person after all, in the sense that she didn't much like humans generally. Her dislike was edged on hatred as well, which wouldn't bode well for the human who scoffed at her or spoke dispassionately. She had enough to deal with in Syliras without anything else bothering her.

"You? You don't have Symenestra blood, and believe me, it would be evident if you did. Dra is a title for the children of Symenestra women with outside races, like Human. It's not a nice title, but even humans like you won't ever have to deal with it. And yes, you'd greatly need an escort."

She had no dislike of 'Dra', contrary to what Lucas thought. That Sitana in her head was racist against them, for whatever reason, but Asara considered the only Dra she'd met in Syliras as a friend, and while she pitied him for not being able to do what she could, she envied him for being more human than was ever possible for her unless she was animated into a human shell. She disliked being a Symenestra, no matter what Dhalvasha insisted she should feel or what Sitana dictated what she should be like. She was breakable and venomous, truly a small spider. She had nothing other than that to boast about, and even still she felt no desire to boast. Human women had so much more than her.

"As far as I can remember and have been told, the streets are red silk, like a spider web. Symenestra can travel along these streets, but any other race can't. Entering the city, a human like you would have to be carried up. You, like the Dra, do not possess the ability to scale things bare-handed. It's sad, really... And yes, my bite could probably kill you. It gets stronger when I am hungry."

She didn't know if he'd take her last statement as a threat, and she didn't really want to know. She wasn't threatening him at all, but she did mean what she had said. A hungry Symenestra was a dangerous one when it tried to bite. She'd bitten a human once in such a condition. It wasn't a pretty thing to see or hear, especially after the numbing effect had faded.

She smiled more openly at his statement after sitting down about shaking those people up. It was something she'd have liked to do as well, shocking every human and otherwise that she met with something outrageous, but she didn't know what to do exactly. A small little spider like her had no hope of garnering any worthwhile attention that would be anything but a bad kind.

"Shock them when you aren't here. They can't ban you if you flash people in public, right? Although that could hardly be fitting for a 'squire' such as yourself. You could be put out of the Knighthood, if they do such a thing here..." She fell into silence at his words about being more open minded. She did not suffer physically violent tendencies unless extremely angry or upset, and she'd probably never hit the only human she found nice to her. So, while she'd let him be a Knight and step on her if he ever felt the need to, she would never raise a hand to hurt him.

"I don't eat much, Lucas. It takes me too long to eat solid foods. I'm skinny for a reason." She smiled at him, showing her fangs. "I would only eat an apple or pear a day, Lucas. And, I wouldn't bite a human unless there was no alternative. Have you ever tasted your race? Not particularly tasty." Despite her words, there was always that underlying desire to devour a human, something she did well with holding back. Lucas was too kind however, even for a Knight or Squire.

[Lucas Arias]

„How do you know that I don’t have Symenestra blood?“ Lucas wanted to know. „I could be an Inarta-Symenestra or some other weird combination! I’m skinny, I’m pale and I have weird eyes.“ He paused for a moment and furrowed his brow as something occured to him. „What do halfbreeds actually look like? Would I look like a halfbreed if I painted my nails black and stuck fake fangs into my mouth?“ The thought of him with fangs and black nails was so amusing that he nearly laughed out loud. Now that would be a strange sight! „Oh.“ As she informed him that the streets of Kalinor were made of silk, he sighed. He really felt inadequate compared to her for a moment. Being a human sucked sometimes! He couldn’t climb, he wasn’t venomous, and he didn’t have those black nails either. As she confirmed that she could indeed kill him with his bite, he retreated a bit and raised his hands a little as if to defend himself. He didn’t believe that it she would suddenly jump at him and try to devour him – not in the middle of the bath – but it was better to be careful nevertheless. „Flashing people in public ... hmmm ...“ he murmurred and lowered his hands again, and then he shook his head. „I’m not an exhibitionist“, he decided. „Running naked through Syliras would just be weird. I think I’ll try to come up with another way to shock people.“ Maybe he’d feel differently towards it if he were a tall, muscular kinight, but as it was it would just be a huge embarrassment! He looked much better with his clothes on! „An apple a day?“ His eyes widened. His stomach began to grumble at the thought. „If I only ate an apple a day I would go mad with hunger! I don’t thing I could survive on so little food! If you can’t eat solid foods, you should try things like porridge. It’s disgusting, but at least it’s kind of mushy. And no, I’ve never tried eating a human.“ He glanced at his arm as if he considered taking a bite out of it, and then he shuddered. „I’ve never had a desire to do so.“ And then he narrowed his eyes. „How do you know that humans aren’t particularly tasty?“

[Asara Willow]

"Well, those with Symenestra blood tend to look like Symenestra, with slight differences from their father's. You would look more like me. Are my eyes weird, then, Lucas?" She raised pale eyebrows, wondering if he had really just insinuated that she looked weird. Again. "You'd look like yourself still. If you must known, you aren't pale enough, sickly enough, nore frail enough. Symenestra are almost always thin, even half-bloods. And pale. They also don't eat much solid foods unless their blood is diluted enough." She narrowed her weird eyes at the Squire.

"Why do you sound so put off? It's much better not being a Symenestra. There isn't so much racism towards you." Her tone insinuated that she believed the racism undeserved. Wouldn't any other race take women if their own couldn't bear pure-bloods of their own species? The Symenestra were dwindling in Kalinor. The males could only reproduce thrice, and the children committed matricide as their first act of love.

"I wouldn't want to do it anyway. I'm skin and bones compared to the other humans here" Her tone darkened with contempt for her own physical deficiency. What she wouldn't give to be strong like human women.

"I can eat solids, but it takes time for my venom to make it liquid enough. And I can't stand porridge. It's fruits, or I go hunting for something heavier." She wrinkled her nose at the thought of eating porridge every day. His next question made her pause. She had to step carefully around this one. She wasn't sure if there were stories about a dead farmer in the Wildlands, yet, and she didn't want to find out if this human knew. "Have you ever smelled yourselves after a day of work? Not particularly apetizing." She said delicately.

[Lucas Arias]

„No, your eyes are not weird!“ Lucas quickly said to Asara. He was afraid that he had offended her, and he didn’t want to do that. She was nice. „I have weird eyes. Look!“ He opened his eyes as wide as possible so that she could take a look and confirm that yes, his eyes were indeed weird. As she informed him that he’d still look like himself with black nails and fake fangs, he let out a sigh that sounded a little artificial. „I could hide in the basement for a few days and only live on soup?“ he suggested. „Would that make me more like a Symenestra?“ „I’m not put off!“ he told her. „I was merely wondering if I could manage to disguise myself as one of you. And no, racism isn’t any fun. Talking to members of other races is much more interesting.“ Why hate Symenestra and insult them when you could talk to them about so many interesting things? He’d never understand that! It seemed as if she didn’t like porridge either. He wondered if there was some kind of dish that was like porridge, but made of sweet fruit instead, but he couldn’t come up anything. Maybe if he mashed apples and oranges? He pondered that for a bit, but then she told him why she didn’t find humans tasty, and he immediately focused all his attention on that. „No, I don’t smell good after a day of work“, he agreed and made a face. „I’m all sweaty and smell disgusting. Would I be more appetizing if I used perfume? I could borrow some from my mother or one of the female squires. I’m pretty sure that Jaelyn uses perfume sometimes.“

[Mia]

Mia Mia was having a lazy day, just enjoying the public pool in the Soothing waters, where she sometimes treated herself. It wasn't often she treated herself, so she spent as long time as she could everytime she'd decided that she deserved it. It's not easy being both frugal and poor. She'd been lingering by the edge, it'd been quite crowded, and she wasn't about to let others ruin her treat. So she'd let one rip. It caused a big bubble and a lot of smaller ones, and caused everyone to frown and move away. It wasn't long however until someone came close by, and Mia was terrified beyond belief. She didn't know what the female was, but she was scary and dangerous, she must be, since she's unknown. Shortly after a human male joined her on the other side, and Mia wished dearly that he'd switch sides, so he'd be between the unknown woman and herself. She didn't dare move much, just her usual fidgeting. She was used to being overlooked, and it seems she was now too, luckily. Since she didn't dare move enough to go somewhere else, she was stuck, and as such just took to listening to their conversation. She had no doubt in her mind that the female had eaten a human, or even a hundred humans. At the mention of perfume making someone smell more appetizing, she felt the need to speak up however. "Perfume is not appetizing, it just stings one's nose. Would you eat pork sprayed with perfume?" Well, now. Wasn't that daring of her? Of course, had she not been surrounded by other people, and this Lucas, knight-in-training, she wouldn't have dared speak when close to the Symenestra, Asara.

[Chevalier]

Lucas

LORE

• Witty Banter
• Kalinor (Basic)

EXPERIENCE

Skill	XP Earned
Rhetoric	5
Interrogation	5
Swimming	2

Storyteller Notes

Secret :

Lots of questions and talking. What a relationship between you two though .