Closed Red, White and New (Pho)

[Niello]

The thought of white feathers tickled the Kelvic, but the fact that Phobius knew a real, live magician was even more intriguing than potential plumage. That the mage was a practitioner of alchemy mattered not, for Niello, like Phobius, had no clue what that meant. All he heard was that the other boy knew a man who knew magic, and that was enough to make his mind race with the possibilities of finding out if this Kuvarakh fellow could actually give him wings. Then he and Phobius could take that amazing trip and explore the world together, and not have to be content with just Alvadas. However, since he’d just arrived here, and there was, he was sure, plenty to explore before thinking about leaving again, he tucked the idea of asking Kuvarakh about possible transformations into the back of his busy mind, as Phobius put another question to him. It didn’t quite take him by surprise, for he knew full well that many beings lacked the ability to communicate with other beings, including animals. And his own skills in that realm were admittedly limited. But they outstripped the average human’s, certainly. “Well…” he began slowly, searching for the best way to explain this. “You see, I can talk to the seals, if you want to call it talking. It’s not like human speech, but it is enough, for our needs. I can understand most of our cousins too – the walruses and the sea lions. I’ve heard there is a race that lives in the warm south seas too, but I’ve never been that far and so I don’t know if I would understand them. The whales are, well, I can sometimes guess a little at what they are going on about. They have amazingly beautiful songs, you know.” Once again, he was rattling on, and then he halted abruptly and explained, “Of course, it’s much easier when I am a seal. Right now it would be a bit trickier, and much, much harder to talk back to them.” He’d been looking at Phobius, and suddenly his eyes moved past those red locks and they widened. “Did that house just move?” he gasped, in an awed pleasure. Smiling widely, he said, “This town is amazing. You picked a good place to live, Phobius.”

[Phobius]

So I was right! Phobious inwardly exclaimed as he listened to Niello speak, a triumphant grin breaking out on his face. He can talk to animals...! Well, maybe not all the animals in the whole world, but ones who like being around water.

The more he listened, the more he realized that his friend seemed to have a strong penchant for seals. Personally, he couldn't blame him; the boy had never been lucky enough to see an actual seal up close, what with no great bodies of water being in Mt. Skyinarta's vicinity, but from the pictures in books and little figurines he'd gotten a look at he could tell that they were round and had really cute faces. Walruses were kind of like seals, too, only he remembered them having those long fang-like tusks that jutted from their mouths. And sea lions...sea lions were just skinnier seals, weren't they?

“Of course, it’s much easier when I am a seal. Right now it would be a bit trickier, and much, much harder to talk back to them.”

At Niello's words, Phobius nearly let out a shocked gasp. He could turn into a seal...!? Did that mean that he knew some sort of shape-shifting magic spells or something? The boy wasn't sure if such things existed, but he couldn't think of any other reason that the other boy would be able to become an animal. Unless he'd been born with the ability or something. Either way, it sounded incredible, and Phobius wanted—needed—to know more. "How long have you been able to do that? Turn into a seal, I mean. And what's it like being in an ocean all day?"

He had no way of knowing that seals didn't spend every waking moment of their lives in water, and assumed that they were like giant fish. When the white-haired boy suddenly started a moment later, gaping at something off to their side, Phobius whipped his head around and tried to see it for himself. It was just another house, but according to Niello, it'd moved. "Oh yeah, they do that all the time," Phobius said. "I've never seen one while it was actually moving, though. I guess you got really lucky!"

The comment about his choice of a place to live prodded a somewhat-prideful nod from him. "I think so, too. I really like it here."

Only he didn't just like it. He adored it and almost everything about it, from the food to the people to the winding, shuffling streets and buildings. The city seemed to become more of a home for him with each passing day; in all honesty, it was more of a home than Wind Reach ever was.

Chimes passed, and before long the two had finally found the Cubacious Inn, sitting unsurprisingly in a different spot than it'd been in earlier, where a tiny bakery had apparently decided to nestle in next to it. Phobius beckoned Niello in, holding the door open for him and waving at Ms. Georgia as he skirted passed her desk and made his way to the nearest hall. His room wasn't too far away, so it didn't take long to reach it.

It was a cozy-sized, simple space, and the walls were painted a shade of baby blue. On the sole desk the room sat an old wooden crate—one that Phobius had gotten from a kindly merchant—and inside of it, perched atop a nest of various twigs, leaves, and tufts of grass, was a small kestrel chick. The downy feathers that were mixed in with its brown ones were a clear indicator of its youth, and it looked content, its head tucked into its chest.

"Here she is," Phobius announced, smiling as he went over to the desk. The chick looked up at him, then, and he petted it as it began to squeak. "Ms. Georgia said that I could keep her in here as long as I made sure to take care of her. I found her a while ago, out in the forest, and she was all by herself. I didn't wanna leave her alone, so I waited to see if her mommy or daddy would come to get her, but when they didn't I took her back to the city and asked a nice man about her. He was the one who told me what she was, and how I could feed her and help her grow."

Then, in a cooing voice, the boy knelt down a bit and spoke directly to the bird. "Hey, chickie-chickie-chickie. Look, I found a new friend! You be nice to him, okay?"

Phobius knew that she'd be nice, anyway. It wasn't often that he brought people to his room, let alone to see her, but she was a friendly little bird. "Hey," he suddenly asked, looking at Niello. "I know you said you could only talk to seals, but do you think, if you tried reeeally hard, you'd be able to talk to her, too...? I mean, it's okay if you can't. I still need to think of a name for her...but if she already has one, I'd wanna call her that."

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Niello]

The Inartan seems surprised about Niello’s talk of shifting, as he exclaimed, "How long have you been able to do that? Turn into a seal, I mean. And what's it like being in an ocean all day?" “All my life,” the Kelvic answered breezily, not aware that the redhead had no experience with his kind. Like many beings, he took for granted that the other boy would understand his world, although there was no specific reason to think so. “I love the sea,” he went on, his expression one of whimsy for a moment. “Swimming is so easy, and fast! And there are so many interesting things to see! As long as you don’t run into any sharks, it’s great fun!” As usual, it took only a moment for something else to capture the white haired youth’s attention, this time the building which, though he hadn’t quite caught it in the act of moving itself, had at least trembled a bit as it settled into its new position. Just as he himself found his own shifting ability commonplace, Phobius took the shifting about of buildings quite in stride, and his reply was almost dismissive of the wonderment of the phenomenon. However his enthusiasm for the magic infused place was apparent in his tone as he averred that he was smitten with his choice of cities, and Niello was inclined to join in that enthusiasm, insensitive as he was to the fact that magic held as many dangers and risks as it did entertaining amusements, and probably more so of the former. The two continued on their way, Niello beginning already to form an impression of the lay out of the streets as they walked along together. It might not serve him a bit of good, with the way things shifted about. Yet still, his innate sense of global orientation would at least serve him well, if he could use the mental reckoning of where things stood relative to the earth. Time would tell if he would be able to pick up on how to navigate the tricksy city as well as Phobius seemed to be doing. They continued to chat away merrily, like two excited magpies, until they had reached their destination – an inn – and Phobius lead Niello inside. He threw a friendly smile to the lady behind her high desk, and a nod of his white head, and followed Phobius to a room down a corridor. It was simple and practically bare, but Niello liked the soothing shade of the walls. And being a Kelvic who spent quite a lot of his time in the ocean, the lack of fancy finery didn’t bother him one bit. He stepped over to view the young bird in her box home, and he smiled, gently this time. He bent down when Phobius did, as the redhead spoke of her history with him to date. When Phobius posed his request, Niello considered for a moment, and then allowed, “I could try, sure. I’m not a bird so I don’t know how this will go, but we’ll see, OK?” He was already standing up, and in almost the blink of an eye, he had stripped off his few articles of clothing, which he tossed casually to the floor. There was a brief moment where stood the unclothed boy followed by the sight of a young adult harp seal lying on the floor of Phobius’ rented room. Raising up his head, he poked it slightly towards the kestrel chick, making a snuffing sound and wriggling his head around a bit. The reaction of the bird was almost comical, and whether or no the two were actually communicating in any way was hard to tell. Niello stayed in his seal form for perhaps two minutes, with various seal sounds emanating from him, and what might have been reciprocal bird sounds in reply, or perhaps they were just random. Then there was anther odd moment, for those unused to such things, where one second there was a seal in the room and the next a naked boy. Casually, he pulled on his clothes again, as he said, “Well…I can’t really understand her language. Not enough to know her name, any way. I do think she is very happy here. She sounded quite content and relaxed.” “Sorry,” he said, laying a hand of solace on Phobius’ thin shoulder. “Maybe if I’m around her enough I could learn some of her language. But it’s not quite that way – not the way I’ve seen some humans and other creatures learn one another’s language.” He smiled though, always the optimist. “But I could try, if you want me to. She’s really nice.” He reached out one finger and gently stroked her head.

[Phobius]

OOCSorry that this took so long! XL

Niello had seemed pretty confident when he'd said that swimming was easy; Phobius, however, found that he couldn't share the same enthusiasm about it, despite the bright and cheery smile that he kept on his face. The Inartan boy had never swam, before; the only seas that flanked his mountainous home were those of green grass and skinny trees, and the actual water beyond all that was too far away for anyone to bother with, save for some traders and whoever else hovered around Thunder Bay. He wasn't sure what to think of water, but massive bodies of the stuff had always seemed...cold to him. And dark. The kind of dark that made him really uncomfortable, like being in a tiny, windowless, lamp-less room in the middle of nowhere. And there were all sorts of creatures lurking around, but it was probably really hard to tell which ones were dangerous and which ones weren't, like...like sharks. Were sharks dangerous? It kinda sounded like they were. The name itself seemed like a noise someone would make while they were trying to eat something tough and non-chewy. Shark shark shark.

It was a funny word to think about. The boy couldn't help but repeat it in his head a few more times as they stood in his room, his mind beginning to drift with the foreign hardness of the creature's title. Then Niello said that he'd try and talk to the baby bird. Beyond pleased, Phobius brought himself out of his directionless train of thought so that he'd be able to focus and listen to whatever conversation they managed to have, only to turn his head and stare distractedly at the floor as the white-haired boy shimmied out of his clothes.

There was a nagging feeling in the back of Phobius' mind, all of a sudden, telling him that he'd been in somewhat of a similar situation, before. Just as quickly as it'd come, however, it vanished, and the boy continued to wait for his friend to do...whatever it was that he apparently didn't need clothes for. Eventually his curiosity got the best of him and forced his head back around.

Sitting on the ground in Niello's place was a grey-and-white seal. Phobius let out a gasp and stared down at the creature, his expression one of pure amazement and wonder. The boy had turned into a seal...! An adorable, round seal, with whiskers and a cute little face and...oh, he just wanted to get on his knees and give it a hug!

The temptation was unbelievably strong, too, but Phobius managed to keep himself still, instead watching as Niello tried talking to his kestrel friend. The chick looked almost as shocked as he felt, but didn't start to panic or shy away from him as he drew in close. What the Inartan boy could only assume to be words were exchanged between the two, and widened amber eyes flicked back and forth from one face to the next. After a while, it looked as though they were done talking; Niello turned back into his human-self, and Phobius redirected his attention to some random spot on the ceiling as he slipped back into his clothes.

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a little and looked back down, assuming that he was allowed to, now. "That's okay. I mean, you don't have to try if you don't wanna...I just wanted to see if you could," Phobius replied, his eyes practically glimmering with fascination. "And you turned into a seal! I never saw anyone do that, before. Does it hurt? It didn't look like it did...w-well, I wasn't looking at you, but you didn't make any hurt sounds."

The whole process of a person becoming an animal was still mind-boggling to the boy, and he couldn't help but sound a little worried as he spoke to Niello, figuring that any number of bad, painful things could've happened to his body that he wouldn't have noticed. As he waited for an answer, another matter presented itself to him, and he decided to put it out in the open with his other concerns.

"If you're okay, what do you wanna do, now...?"

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Niello]

The off and on nature of his clothing didn’t strike the Kelvic in the same way it might a human – or at least a human unused to being around those of his race. So he blithely disregarded, or perhaps failed to note altogether, any small discomfiture the red head had displayed during his brief transitioning. He did answer the other boy’s question, matter-of-factly, saying, “No, not at all. It just…happens, that’s all. I hardly even have to think about it.” He smiled brightly and then let out an “Oh!” with the afterthought that occurred to him. “I guess I should say, it doesn’t hurt, and it’s really easy, except when I’m really, really, really hungry – you know – when my belly is really empty.” He patted it to reinforce the concept. “Then it’s like, well…once I shift I really need to eat, before I shift again.” Then he laughed. “But seeing as I love to eat, and I’m pretty good at catching fish, I don’t have too many problems like that.” It seemed his new friend was satisfied with his reassurances, and the topic next turned to what they might get up to next. Niello sat back on his heels, regarding the chick and pondering. “Well…” he began. “I suppose I might need to get a room here. So I’ll have some place to sleep – although I could just sleep in the water. But – I think I’d like to sleep in a bed again, for a while, anyway. Maybe you could help me? I hope they have some rooms available.” He regarded Phobius thoughtfully, his mind mulling over possible needs now that he’d be on land again – at least for now – and also his desires. What did the city have to offer a curious person like himself? Or was that putting the cart before the horse, so to speak? One of the more curious aspects of the town was such that it was going to make finding the other curiosities that much harder – namely, the streets that liked to prank the inhabitants. Maybe that’s where they needed to begin. “If I can get a room here, maybe we can go for a walk? Then you can show me how you know where to go. I’m pretty good in the water. I made it all the way to the middle of the Suvan without getting lost. But…” He nodded vaguely in the direction of what lay beyond the room’s walls. “I’m guessing that out there is going to be way different.” Suddenly, he frowned just a little, and he set both hands flat on the floor, one to each side of himself. “Did you feel that?” he asked, sure that he’d just felt a little tremble in the floorboards. OOCNo worries!

[Phobius]

It was good that Niello hadn't been in any pain, and interesting to hear about how eating was apparently really important when he wanted to switch between being an animal and a person. In a way, Phobius could understand it; there had been times where he'd woken up some mornings with an awful feeling in his stomach, as though it was trying to cave in on itself from pure hunger. Frightening-yet-familiar moments like those had tempted him to panic, at first, instilling within his mind the inordinate fear that he'd caught some terrible, tummy-shrinking disease, but once the boy was able to make the connection between the stomach aches and his tendency to eat early dinners, things started to make sense.

“But seeing as I love to eat, and I’m pretty good at catching fish," the white-haired boy said. "I don’t have too many problems like that.”

Does he mean fishing with some string, or catching fish when he's a seal...? Phobius mused, a bit puzzled. Or both, maybe? I bet he knows how to fish both ways, but which one is the better one? And if he's a seal, he probably eats raw fish, since all animals eat raw food unless you give them other stuff...what does raw fish even taste like? I don't think it could really be good...I mean, not if it's just...cold and un-cooked. And salt...less. Salt makes it taste good. Wait...but maybe animals taste differently than people do, so maybe raw food tastes great, to them. Maybe that's why they eat it much. Well, that and it looks hard to cook if you don't have thumbs...

Again, the Inartan was pulled down into the gaping vortex that was his mind, one errant curiosity giving way to another, until an entire stream of questions had been created. And as much as he wanted answers, he was overwhelming himself with the sheer amount of stuff that was packed into his head, now. Not wanting to suddenly maul his friend with questions, like he'd been doing for the last few chimes, Phobius kept his mouth closed and let him go on, uninterrupted. Then he brought up needing someplace to stay, and the boy felt suddenly compelled to speak. "Yeah! We can go and ask Miss Georgia about it, right now! She's not busy, I think, and people like it here a lot, but there's probably some empty rooms, 'cause this isn't the only—"

...isn't the only what? The only inn? No, it wasn't. The Cubacious Cube's only rival in the city was The Wolf's Cave, which was supposed to be a sort of special place. A place for...well, people who were like Niello, right? For animal-people? At least, that was what Miss Georgia had told him when he'd asked about the place ages ago. Some time later, Phobius had taken it upon himself to go and visit, but he couldn't remember much about it, now, aside from having spent a short amount of time there. Niello, however, was new, and wouldn't know that there was another inn nearby, so it was probably a good idea to let him know. But...

But what if he went to the other inn, and decided that he liked it more than he liked here...? What if he liked it so much that he got a room there, instead? It was a strange possibility, and Phobius had no idea where it was coming from all of a sudden, but he didn't like it. Maybe he was being a little selfish, but...he really wanted Niello to stay at this inn; it'd be great to have a friend who was constantly around. Then again, it was only fair that the other boy got the chance to choose which place was the one he thought was the best of the two.

And besides, it wasn't like they'd never see each other, again, if they just so happened to end up staying in different places. Though the Wolf's Cave seemed to enjoy moving around just as much as every other building, it wasn't a long walk from here.

Phobius went on, despite the awkwardly abrupt pause. "Uhm...there's another inn around here, if you wanna go and look at that one, first. I went there, before, but it was a long time ago...we can just ask Miss Georgia about it. She should know. ...oh, right, she's the lady that I waved at when we walked in. She's the owner, and she's really nice and knows lots of helpful stuff."

The boy was already on his way out the door by the time he'd finished talking, motioning for Niello to follow him. That was when he noticed that he had his palms on the floor. Apparently, something had moved.

"Huh...? Feel what?" he replied, a slightly confused look upon his face as he blinked at his friend. Then his gaze drifted down to the floor, and he focused on it for a few ticks, looking as though he was waiting for it to start rumbling. "Hmm. I didn't feel anything. Maybe its the places outside moving around...? I think I asked Miss Georgia about that, once, but she didn't know what I was talking about."

To be honest, he wasn't sure he'd known, either; the sensation had been a brief one, but he'd ran right to the woman when he was convinced that he'd felt it, and she'd been quick to brush it off as something he'd imagined. Seeing no reason to question her, he never really brought it up again.

Quickly checking to make sure Niello was coming along, Phobius made his way back down the hall and into the lobby, where the ever-present Miss Georgia was seated at her desk.

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Niello]

The mention of the other inn went in one ear and right out the other. The Kelvic wasn’t the type to compare and contrast and rate factors pro and con a choice to be made or spend time delving into details of the other accommodation for visitors to the city. He knew Phobius lived here, at this inn, and he liked Phobius, and that was pretty much the end of the matter, as far as Niello was concerned. In fact, it was the prospect of hopefully spending some time with the other boy, getting to hang out with him and learn from him – laugh with him, swap tales, explore the mysteries of the city – in a word, get to be his friend – that was the draw for Niello to even consider living on land and not simply slipping back into his other skin when he needed to rest and heading for the comforting arms of the sea. Like all of his race, the Kelvic was drawn by nature to humans, and other beings, always with that inner urge to find the one he was destined to serve, to bond with. It wasn’t something he thought about constantly or yearned for with a longing in his heart. But it was ingrained deeply in his genes and so it wasn’t in his nature, really, to remain overlong away from the company of people. And seeing as he had had the good fortune to bump into Phobius, who was so readily open to interacting with him, Niello had no desire or thought to go check out this other inn. And he’d been right on the point of telling Phobius this, when he felt the floor tremble. Despite the redhead’s avowal that he’d felt nothing, the Kelvic was positive that he’d felt movement. But as Phobius didn’t seem at all worried, Niello adopted the same attitude and rose, following the other boy out the door into the passageway. “The room moved,” he said sedately. Then, as was his way, he forgot about it, for the moment, and finally replied to Phobius' earlier comments about the other inn in town. “I don’t think I want to stay in that other place you talked about. I want to stay here. It’s nice. And you’re here.” He smiled happily. “I like that. I like this inn.” Without further ado, they proceeded to the front desk, where Miss Georgia was at her post. In no time at all, she had agreed to let one of her rooms to Niello, and had shown him to one that was only a short way removed from Phobius’ , being in one of the other two cubes. The walls of this room were a soft sea foam green, which was especially homey to the white haired boy, and he smiled and thanked her merrily as he stowed his little bag of belongings. He patted the bed before they left the room, and observed, “I haven’t slept in one of these for a couple of months. I wonder if I’ll be able to get to sleep, without the waves to rock me.” He shrugged quickly though, and turned to Phobius with a grin. “Maybe I can find a hammock like the sailors on the ships use and when the room moves it will make it sway. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for one in the market.” With that thought in mind he moved to and through the door, ready to set out on a preliminary exploration of the city.

[Fable]

Phobius

Skills

Observation +5
Socialization +5
Persuasion +2
Teaching +4
Investigation +5
Interrogation +2
Storytelling +4
Logic +1
Land Navigation +2
Animal Husbandry +1
Intelligence +1

Lores

Location: The Tattered Thread
Philosophy: What Is Human?
Niello: Friendly Seal Kelvic
Kelvics: Shapeshifting Race

Rewards/Consequences

Reward
Consequnce

Notes :

+Small red doublet with golden buttons
-22 GM 5 SM (Base doublet: 3 SM, Buttoned: x10, Dyed red: x1.5, Small: 50%)

Please update your ledger accordingly!