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Post by Flint on Jul 16, 2020 11:16:09 GMT 1
„Why?“ he asked, „Why can I make fire, but you not water? Or Keleero stone? What's the difference?“ Having not much of previous knowledge and his world encouraging to question everything taught him to do the same everywhere. To just try, not accept any established rules. Useful it certainly was, though he wouldn't be able to explain how it happened, the feelings just there. “I make colors” was his proud reply, gesturing to his backpack. “They're not useful. Just wanted something to leave an impression on the world.” Some activity having no use in aiding to the survival was as far as 'fun' could go in his world, but that didn't make him any less passionate about it.
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 16, 2020 14:29:45 GMT 1
"Why is the sky blue? Why does the wind blow?" Mahrak answered back with his own questions, these ones rhetorical rather than actually looking for answers. "Things just work as they work. All we can do is follow the rules and push ourselves to master them as best we can." At least that's what his teacher had told him.
"That's delightful!" Mahrak said to the revelation of Flint making colors, and he meant it. "Do you have plans on painting the caves here? They sure could do with some color." The elves of The Far White weren't too keen on leaving their living quarters drab and colorless. What Keleero had been doing in the room with the hot water was impressive in its own right, but he clearly couldn't change the color of the rock. Splashes of not-rock would brighten the place right up!
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Post by Flint on Jul 16, 2020 23:41:23 GMT 1
“The sky is blue because that's the night colors but with light. And wind is like water, it moves and we're standing in the stream.” Rhetorical questions weren't a concept known to him, every question asked a valid one, turned around and kept till there'd be an answer. “Sure” he replied, shrugging a bit. “Used to do it every where, even if it never was enough to mark the path we'd come. But maybe someone would see.” Just because there had been no one else didn't meant truly no one else was left. The world was big. “I got paint on my too” Flint tipped lightly at his face tattoo – not the best reminder, but easier to see than all his others.
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 18, 2020 15:18:43 GMT 1
"If you say so," Mahrak replied, the answers making little sense to him. Not wanting to show more of his ignorance he quickly picked up the next thread of their talk:
"That sounds fantastic! Leaving a bit of color behind wherever you go, that's a lovely idea." Likely Flint had more serious reasons for his actions than Mahrak would have had, had he thought to do the same thing on his own travels, but he tried to steer away from that. Flint was so very serious and worried at all times - Mahrak didn't think that could be good for an elf, worrying that much. Being alert while out and about, sure, but you had to relax sometime (or as often as one could, if Mahrak got to choose).
"It's an interesting tattoo," Mahrak commented as Flint indicated his face decoration. "Did you get it for some special occasion, as a memory? That's why I got mine." He pulled down his fur coat, to bare his left shoulder and the owl tattooed there. "My teacher suggested I get it, when I finally decided to leave in search of other elves." He sighed in contentment, the memory a happy one. "I should get another one, as a celebration for finding so many other elves, if someone here knows how do make them. What should I it be, do you think?
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Post by Flint on Jul 19, 2020 15:49:20 GMT 1
'Lovely' hadn't been the main reason behind his painting, more a bit to stay sane, to beat the landscape in it's change, the vain hope to alert other wanderers, to someday find a sign of others. One little thing he allowed himself that wasn't solemnly for survival. “Sapling build stone formations.” Why this he'd never asked, nor did his twin question the painting. Those things just were and with as much as they shared it was better to have some differences. Flint shook his head slightly at the question. “No. Ivy did it, when we showed magic first. To keep us apart. Me, because fire is more dangerous. Only remember how it hurt.” Not so nice a memorial. “I could make you one – but nothing so delicate. Don't got much practice.” Looking up at the sky he thought a bit on the question of a motive. “Something that wouldn't change, even if this place does”
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 20, 2020 18:09:06 GMT 1
Mahrak again didn't know how to react to Flint mentioning his brother. Should he also mention him, ask about him? Or talking around him? Urgh, this is so tricky. How to not make this worse? Well, complete silence seemed the worst reaction. "Good to know you both had things to do other than run." ...nope, that might have been worse than silence. Curses.
The explanation of Flint's tattoo made Mahrak frown. "Keep you apart? Why?!" It hadn't entered Mahrak's mind that Flint and his brother might look identical. A face tattoo wasn't something one attempted lightly; having it done as some sort of rite of passage or celebration was one thing, but to keep two elves apart somehow? Strange, and quite unsettling.
"A small tattoo would be welcome! Practice makes perfect." And if something went wrong, you could always cover it up later on. "From what others have told me, this place has remained the same as long as they've been here. How long will it take before you know if this is the same place as the one you're from? Or, if it has the same dangers?" Mahrak doubted there would be danger, but it'd be foolish to completely dismiss Flint or deliberately upset him. He hadn't done anything to deserve needling.
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Post by Flint on Jul 21, 2020 9:59:15 GMT 1
Even Flint didn't knew how to treat being separated from Sapling, having never been separated. He'd work it out eventually. “We didn't run. There was nowhere to run to. Just surviving.” The boy shrugged, not seeing how this might be a rather bleak outlook to most others. Good that he had no experience with conversations, taking no offense at Mahraks choice of words. “We look the same. But fire magic is more dangerous than plant one. I was the dangerous one.” Whatever Ivys reasoning had been, she thought it the best, the safest for their little group. There was no going back from it now. A small tattoo he could sure do, nodded. “Tell me if you decide on what.” As for the dangers of this place, the possibility to change, he couldn't say. “It doesn't feel anything like it. If it's the same, it's not anywhere I've ever seen. Maybe it changes. Maybe not.”
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 21, 2020 17:51:22 GMT 1
"Oh you and your brother are twins. Well...that explains part of it, but not why a mother would do that to her child. It's not like face tattoos are painless." Mahrak flinched at the mere thought of it. "Was she really that scared of the magic around you? Seems rather drastic to me." He scrambled back to the topic of a possible future tattoo with gratitude. "I'll make sure to let you know. Will need to think on it a bit, but I'm sure I can come up with something that's just tricky enough for you to practice." He smiled and a winked, hoping to keep the mood light. He had a hard time reading Flint and judging what might upset him. "As for this place, from what I can tell you're the only elf around here who's lived anywhere where there's bad magic everywhere. I think we reasonably can assume that there's a good chance this place is like most other places where elves live, with ground that doesn't try to eat you." He was aiming for cheerful again. He hadn't seen anything strange around the holt yet, other than some of the other elves, like the colorful child Swish.
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Post by Flint on Jul 22, 2020 20:56:17 GMT 1
There hadn't been a word for looking alike, no other families to compare to – Sapling was his brother and for Flint there were differences like day and night between them, tiny things coming from knowing each other so long and so deeply. He could only shrug at why his mother did it. “I'm not Ivy.” She'd also followed an owl thinking it was their father transformed, so who knew what the reasoning had been. It was done and couldn't be changed. “The ground can swallow you without magic, if it's quicksand or a marsh.” he reasoned back. “And the magic wasn't all bad. Just was. Living, like we did, like the plants here do. I don't... wait for it to happen. But it has and if it does again, I'll react then.” Not so much of a dark mood as his long nurtured mindset, practical and with little room for other things. There'd be learning for him here too.
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 24, 2020 22:39:07 GMT 1
"I'm glad you're not," Mahrak replied, going for a light tone and not quite reaching it. "She sounds...complicated." Calling another elf's dame mad would not be a good path to take toward friendship.
"Well, I haven't encountered any 'quick' sand yet, so I'll take your word for it." The Far White rarely got bare enough to show ordinary sand. "But marshes I am good with. They don't move and I'm fairly sure they don't think. Also, there is lots of water involved. I'll take a marsh over rotten magic any day!"
Above them, the stars shone on in the crystal clear night. Mahrak sighed, this time in contentment. As strange as this exchange of words continued to be, wasn't that exactly what he'd longed for? This was his goal and he'd finally reached it. That should have called for a celebration! "We really should have some dancing," he said out loud, continuing on his new thought path without clarifying his change in subject to his conversation partner. "Singing and dancing. It'd do us all good, warm our bones and lift our spirits!"
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Post by Flint on Jul 26, 2020 10:42:53 GMT 1
Flint wouldn't have taken offense at Ivy being called 'mad', having no one else to compare it to. “The ones you know don't” he pointed out, knowing marshes that very well moved and were alive in a disturbing way, that every instinct told him to avoid, no matter how good of a hunting ground it may be. And since he had no connection to water, it was one of the things he feared for the danger it posed. There was no way for him to follow the thought process leading to Mahraks next proposal and honestly Flint wouldn't mind just sitting here, staring up at the sky. “Dancing...?” Bet that this was another thing unknown to him. “But I am warm! I don't get cold. And I don't want my spirit to go anywhere else!” he protested.
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 27, 2020 0:02:33 GMT 1
Mahrak let Flint's words about marshes he knew about float on uncommented on. Sometimes it was best to let someone else have the last word. Sometimes. Not too often though. That would ruin his reputation.
Also, Flint's next words had Mahrak burst out laughing in pure delighted surprise, so there really was no time to think of a suitable reply about marshes. "Oh you are just full of humor! Of course your spirit wouldn't actually lift, it's just a way to say you'd be happy and cheerful. You...do know what happy and cheerful mean, don't you?" He was honestly beginning to question if he could predict anything Flint would know or say – such a wonderful feeling! "Dancing is when you move to music. It's hard to feel any lighter and freer than when you dance and sing." At least in Mahrak's option. "It's one thing to feel warm in your body. Sometimes you need to feel warmth in your mind and soul too. We've all lost family and friends when taken here. It could do us good to let loose for a bit."
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Post by Flint on Jul 27, 2020 16:35:54 GMT 1
Humor was about the last trait Flint had – and where should he have gotten some from, in a world where every fact needed to be evaluated carefully. If he'd experienced what Mahrak meant, no words had been given to the feelings. “We didn't had that.” True for so many things that might seem normal to everyone else and the best answer he could think off. Carefree maybe, unknowing about the reality of their situation. Contempt later, when they settled into a routine. His life had been the opposite of light and free. “What's music?” Why he would need to feel any warmer than he did was beyond him, so better ask about the unknown words.
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Post by Mahrak on Jul 27, 2020 17:25:50 GMT 1
"That is a painful life, a life with no dancing or music!" Mahrak said, only half-exaggerating. No wonder Flint was so serious all the time! No no, this had to be remedied right away! Taking off his gloves, Mahrak blew hot air on his fingers to warm them up in preparation for flute playing. "I'll show you," he said with a grin, pulling the instrument in question out of a pocket on the inside of his coat. "This would be better with more players, but since you've never heard music before I guess I've got nothing to compete with." With a wink he set his lips to the flute and played a lively, short piece he'd made up the first night he'd met Nightbird. It held the celebratory thrill of discovery, of a goal reached. He repeated the tune a few times, as it was a short little thing, then said, " That's music. Well, some music. There is as much different music as there are different thoughts among our fellow elves! I'm eager to discover what other instruments and songs there are here!"
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Post by Flint on Jul 27, 2020 19:37:48 GMT 1
He faltered a bit at the choice of words, not wishing to call his life 'painful'. It hadn't been like that, not at all, but there were no words to explain. So he listened instead, the motion of warming cold fingers another unknown when it was oh-so-easy to kindle a fire and warm from the inside. Albeit mostly it was puzzling what Mahrak did here. “So... you just make... noise? Why? What for?” Felt unnecessary, dangerous even with how everyone could hear it. This was a sort of noise recognizable as not of nature and he was in fact glad that there'd been no nature around to do it in his world.
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