[Nettle District] - Jumping to Conclusions - [Shiyami]

[Altaira Readva]

Timestamp: 67 Autumn, 513 AV

There was a cool draft about the store, with the early signs of the oncoming winter making their presence known. Altaira picked her cloak off of the tall stand, and wrapped it several times about her. She hated the cold. She counted herself lucky she was only on clock for the next quarter bell, and spent her last, lingering moments in the place tidying the shelves.

She knew Mistress Sahfri liked them very well as they were, but Altaira saw no wrong in the straightening of bottles and rows, nor the light wipe down of the few poultices that seemed to be garnering dust. She almost sneezed half a down times and she went along her remedial work, not quite minding that she'd been left to mind the business end of the store until closing, especially since there was often little to no traffic at the time of day.

The chimes ticked past with alarming speed, and soon Altaira was shrugging her backpack over her shoulders and calling out her leave.

Upon leaving the store, she noted two children, though one seemed to be of an age where he could no longer be really called such. They were nothing but sight she'd nipped from the corner of her eye, the two of them seeming to be dangling perhaps a little too far out of one of the window that overlooked the bazaar.

She'd walked on for only a few more steps, before scanning the area with both sight and sound for someone who could be a guardian of the two - leaving a heavy sigh escape her lips as she found no such person. It wasn't any of her business, really. Kids will be kids, right? She took half glance over in their direction, her view obscured by the tangle of her black, curly hair, and the bunched hood of her cloak.

Even with her enhanced vision, she couldn't comprehend what she was seeing before she spoke out. "What are you two doing?" She half screeched, maternal instincts hitting full throttle as she caught a mere glimpse of a child leaning out precariously far, and screamed 'Stop Them before They Die' in response.

[Shiyami]

To the substantial and usually living, gravity was always with them, comfortingly familiar, burdening them in combat. However, to ghosts, gravity holds no grounds nor laws against them. And this, was exactly what Shiyami was attempting to teach to Kimi. It was originally going to be just a short lecture, but the younger ghost was eager for more. Thus, Shiyami brought Kimi out to a random building, to give a demonstration of zero gravity.

He had brought up a small stone, and dropped it out the window, letting it fall to the ground. At least he hoped it hit the ground, and not a complete stranger who's bad luck allowed them to be in the line of fire. "Notice how the rock falls. However, as ghosts, we do not fall. You know that we float. However, it's not because ghosts are floating by some power. It is just that we do not have any substantial mass to be pulled by gravity.", Shiyami concluded his lesson on that note. Kimi, wanting to do what she could never do, nor be allowed to try, if she was alive, climbed halfway out the window, before leaning out so far, that anyone alive would have fallen. And that's when they both heard the woman yelling.

"Extra lesson: the living do not comprehend what seems surreal.", Shiyami muttered, half joking, half serious. Being beckoned, Kimi climbed on Shiyami's back, before the older ghost climbed out the window, and 'jumped' down, probably terrifying anyone watching, as it would appear to be a child jumping out the window, and hitting the ground at full force.

OOCI'll let you make the first contact

Shiyami

[Altaira Readva]

Altaira's breath was heaving quite some bit, though calmed some bit when the two she'd spotted were safely on the ground. She prayed to the Gods that they weren't human, or at least had some blood in them that mean that they weren't hurt or injured. With that thought, she calmed down some. She wasn't human, herself, and knew how much of a bother people could be when speaking of something they knew nothing of.

"By the Goddess of Winter," she swore, words directed at the older of the two. "Tell me you're not hurt." There was a moment when she couldn't recall being so worried, but then quickly thought to the many instances in her youth when she was left to care for her reckless, youngest brother. Though, given his state of no longer being, letting her thoughts fall upon him in the situation was probably not the best of ideas. "What in Gods' names were you doing up there?"

She quickly let herself focus on the two, eyes hard and sharp on their appearances. There was an oddness to them, a strange fluidity she'd only seen on her feline sister kelvic, who moved with such lightness it was as though she walked on air.

oocGah, Its only short, I know! I just wasn't sure where to go with it :S

[Shiyami]

Shiyami looked up, as a woman seemed to be in a state of panic, from a pair of ghosts falling down -Was more of a soft drifting- from a window. She seemed to have not noticed that the pair were in fact dead, an physical burdens are no longer a problem. Such as falling from a great height. It feels strange, having someone worry over you. Reminds of my mother..., he thought to himself with a mental sigh of regret, his thoughts tinged with slight amounts of sadness.

"My apologize, for worrying you. Don't fret, we are unaffected by heights.", he spoke, with the mannerism of someone much, much older then his apparent age. Either this woman needs to understand that Shiyami and Kimi are ghosts, or he will have to find a way to tell her. Just saying outright 'I am a ghost, by the way!' would probably be worrying, not to mention unbelievable at first.... While pondering over his minor dilemma, the woman asked the pair about their actives up at the window. At least he can lead the conversation to himself as a ghost.

"I was only teaching the little one about the lack of gravity.", Shiyami started, pausing to allow the real meaning of being weightless sink into the woman's mind, before continuing, "We, as in myself and the little one here, are ethereals. Ghosts, if you will.", he concluded, carefully gauging the woman's reactions. If she screams, he will grab Kimi and make a break for it, as someone, presumably a knight, will assume he was attacking her, or causing mischief.

Shiyami

[Altaira Readva]

She let the words sink into her for a moment. Ethereals. Ghosts. The undead. She felt her eyes widen and mouth begin to gap, and the look she sent the two was pained, words failing her.

She'd expected them to be part some other race, to have mixed blood to perhaps account for a thing or two. But these two kids were dead. Well, 'kids' might have been an unfair word to use, the older of the two looking at least old enough to work, though it was the younger girl who had Altaira's heart break. She'd heard about such beings - who really hadn't? But they were old men and women scorned. Sailors who were lost at sea and travelers who met untimely ends. They weren't people so young and full of life. The ghosts she'd heard about at least had a chance.

"I am so sorry," she said finally, her words a little broken. She really looked at them this time, gaze washing over the older, and finally being able to pick all the tells to his being. She was somewhat embarrassed, to say the least. Golden-amber eyes that saw more than any human's could, and she'd let her more human instincts take over and dulling their use. She could barely bare the sight of the younger child, and she wondered if her mind would ever grow, or if she'd be in a state of childish innocence for the rest of her being.

[Shiyami]

Shiyami gave a small smile, acknowledging the woman's sadness, on the subject of the pair of ghosts' deaths. Kimi, tilting her head, thought for a moment, and materialized, before 'walking' up to the living and giving her a hug. Well, her leg, that is, thanks to her small height. "Don't be beating yourself up over our deaths. The little one may have died ten years ago, but she does not remember how it happened, nor her previous life. You could say she is living her life now as a ghost. As for me, I died a loooooooooong time ago, in an unimportant event.", he explained, dragging out the 'O' sound in the word 'long', to emphasize his point.

He looked down, to where Kimi was still holding onto the woman's leg, and staring up with her brown eyes, Shiyami have a small chuckle. "I think she's taken a liken to you...ah, that reminds me. We haven't introduced ourselves to each other now, haven't we?", he said, before pointing to Kimi. She is my adopted daughter, Kimi. Her age at death was ten, and she has been dead for ten years. ", before pointing at himself, and saying, "And I am Shiyami. I died at the age of fourteen, and I have been dead for the last four hundred years.", concluding his introductions with a half bow, as if he was on a stage. "And you might be...?", he asked in a light tone after straightening back up. He was only being melodramatic, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Shiyami

[Altaira Readva]

Altaira took a shallow breath at the sight of the older boy's smile, and regretted her own outburst. She shouldn't have needed a comforting smile, it was not her own life that was lost nor the life of one she loved, in this case.

She melted when the younger girl wrapped her arms around her legs, and she rested a hand on her hand. It was such a strange thing, touching a ghost. She felt, for lack of a better world, 'real'; but there was an oddness to her. Like she was touching a porcelain doll rather than a child, and she for a moment considered commenting on the fact. The acts of comfort from the two continued on, with the older boy giving some sense of consultation in saying that the young one could not even remember her death nor her life before hand, and that even he had been a ghost for the last 400 years.

She slowly nodded at the two, giving the boy herself a small smile, more apologetic about the situation than sorrowful. Names and ages came next, prompted by the older boy claiming the young one had taken a likening to Altaira, to which she couldn't help the sweet smile and giggle. Kimi was her name, and she was ten, though she'd been roaming the world for longer than even Altaira's own father. The boy, Shiyami, claimed to have been fourteen when he died, and she found that although there was still a youthful look to his build and shape, she couldn't deny his weathered, old expression, and readily accepted that he'd been upon the world for hundreds of years.

She found his exaggeration tactics a treat, and thought it better to go with the flow than to reject his attempt to lighten the mood. "Altaira Readva," she announced, smile her own kind of dramatic, "Five years of age."

[Shiyami]

Shiyami raised an eyebrow as the woman introduced herself, and told the pair of ghosts' her age. "Five years of age...?", he repeated softly, pondering for the moment. However, his thought process was slower then Kimi's today, oddly enough. She had tilted her head out of confusion for several moments, before looking at the woman's eyes, staring without care, all the while still keeping her small arms wrapped around her leg. "Pretty~", she cooed, keeping her gaze on the woman's iris.

"Kimi, like last time. It isn't polite to stare..." Shiyami muttered, before looking at Altaira's form.  Remembering that the only races he has ever met, that their ages do not seem to correspond with their appearance, would be either Nuit, or Kelvic. And this woman seemed far to lively, to be a Nuit. "Ah, if I may ask, what animal are you able to take the form off?", he voiced his question, out of curiosity.

Shiyami

[Altaira Readva]

Kimi gave her a sweet, bewildered look, and the smile that continued to curve Altaira's lips was one of brazen delight. For all that the young kelvic tried to call herself humble, she was still a cocky being that relished any and all compliment.

Shiyami told the little off, and Altaira would have been pleased to lightly tell that the child's look were more than welcome, only he himself inquired to her species. "Nothing much a marvel," She mused, humble words in severe contradiction of her inflating ego. "I'd like to say that I am a grand polar bear, like my sister, or some wise old canine like my brother - But I'm afraid I'm just a cocky 'little' parrot." She than raised her own brow at the boy, "My knowledge on your kind in scarce, may I ask, have you come across a ghost of my own kin?"

[Shiyami]

"Parrot, you say? Intriguing.", the older ghost remarked, while Kimi, ignoring what Shiyami had scolded her for earlier, went back to staring at the Kelvic's eyes, which seemed to almost shine like gems in the moonlight.

Shiyami sighed, as the conversation moved towards his kind. He was a tad bit curious, was this woman asking about a Kelvic becoming a ghost, because she lost family members at some point in her life? Taking his time, and carefully choosing his words, as to hopefully not sound uncaring, nor spiteful, he finally spoke. "On does not generally meet a ghosts for a conversation, as many have lost the reasoning of the mind, and walked down the strangled path of insanity.", was his answer. Two ticks later, he regretted his wording, as that could be misinterpreted as 'Most or all ghosts are dangerous entities'.

Shiyami