Unity of Differences

Eryk felt like there were many things said in between breaths and spoken words, but he really did not care much about it. He had exhausted himself day and night after one another trying to reach out to his folks, but no one answered. So, he had decided to focus on re-building his life anew.
"Yah, my folks really don't bother much with Recognition anymore...", he managed to add, and then Flint asked about Recognition. Just like the wolfrider maiden now, Eryk looked at the fire shaper for a moment, and then returned to the task of sharpening the poles. 

It was not really his place to answer, since he had never sired a child inside or outside of the thing that was now the hot topic in this discussion. 

Her lips turned down slightly at the corners at Keleero's response; he was not good at hiding how he was feeling in sends, but his reaction to how gentle hers were was nothing new; eventually, he'd learn that she genuinely meant no ill will. The sheer discomfort that leaked through, about the entire conversation, is what made her frown.

~**I'm not sure I believe you, but you don't have to talk about it unless you're ready,**~ she responded to the glider.

She was sure there were other things she was going to respond to, but Flint's question caught her so off guard that her gold eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. It was one thing not to have experienced it - High Ones knew she hadn't - but to not know what it was?

Carefully, she sent, **From my understanding, it is a knowing of the other elf in a way that simply being told a soul name pales in comparison.** Sunset worked very hard to keep her astonishment out of her send. **It is...like finding the matching half to your soul.**

Tambri listened to the comments and tried to keep up as the topics bounced around. She knew no one was forcing them to reveal their soul names. They'd have a hard time getting her to speak her own.

"Soul meets soul when eyes meet eyes."

It was a simple statement and all she said regarding the topic of recognition. The others seemed to have it covered.

SL2657F looked over at Tambri when she said that some tribes didn't even recognize. She, herself, was created outside of recognition. Any recognition that took place was a surprise, and not even a pleasant one. It was almost a death sentence. If the resultant offspring had any forbidden gifts or abilities that were forbidden, both parents would end up executed. Even if they just slept together for fun, they could have offspring and it would be worse for the females in those cases.

"My people do not need it. I was... ehm... <created> by <scientists>... We have these names we keep safe. Hide them. I think of give mine but..." She shook her head. She knew her words were slow and heavily accented, but she was a quick learner. It was how she ended up in the SpecOps of the Dengali army. She still had her broken helmet in her room on a stone-shaped shelf. Same with her plasma gun and extra plasma, though she'd never thought to use the weapon. It was more a keepsake to remember the past. She wondered if the gun would even fire, now?

"<Scientists> make us. But we can re...cog...nize? And can have young with not."

~**I think he left a lot of people behind when he came here,**~ Mahrak lock-sent back to Nightbird on the topic of Eryk . He could sympathize with that, if only in the abstract. He'd willingly left his own people to seek out other elves, knowing he'd likely never return to them, even before the Beacon had snatched him up and put him here. Few others here had that benefit.

"I vote we all agree that those who can share their soul names safely do so if they wish," Mahrak said, now that it had been clear some soul names were different than others, "and that the rest of us keep ours safely secret – unless Recognition has other plans, of course."

He almost whirled around to look at Flint when he voiced his question about Recognition. In hindsight it made sense. Why would Flint have known what Recognition was? His mother had clearly barely raised him and then he'd spent his whole life wandering a nightmare land with only his twin for company. But still!

To Nightbird, he sent a quick: ~**That one hasn't really had the chance to learn anything about his people. He was alone except for his brother until he came here.**~ It didn't fully explain Flint's situation, but hopefully it would give Nightbird enough context for what as about to be said. Flint was soon giving his own context.

Mahrak kept out of trying to explain Recognition, seeing as there were enough voices doing that already, and instead smiled at Nightbird's friendly teasing. ~**Bird-bones is a mystery to us all, I fear. No one has done anything to him and he still acts as if we'll snap and bite if he let's his guard down for a heartbeat. Such a mess. But a pretty mess and a great tumble in the furs.**~ He allowed himself a self-satisfied smile. He doubted Keleero trusted him any more than anyone else in the holt – likely less than some – but he'd still made a connection with the glider.

~**I don't think he knows many of us see as much with our noses as with our eyes. I'll let him continue to think we're being sneaky for a while longer.**~

Keleero, despite his skill at not sharing emotions in sending, knew this didn't keep him safe from others reading between the lines. Especially when he'd been in no state to fully utilize these skills at the beginning of this 'holt', when they'd all been disoriented and desperate for food and shelter. He almost resented Sunset for gently calling him out his clear discomfort, because in his experience, being see was the same as being prey. In response to her, he merely sent back a ping of neutral acknowledgment.

He found little amusing in the playful disregard Reefshadow seemed to show for such a serious topic as soul names. In defensive reflex, he sent back a sarcastic: **If that was an attempt at a guess, I can assure you none of my names have ever been 'featherhead'.**

Then he suddenly received a sending from Crispin , which he hadn't been prepared for. It took him a heartbeat or two to send a neutral reply: **My people have soul names.**

He would have said more, but then the discussion dived full force toward the topic of Recognition, and Keleero had to take a deep breath to calm himself. Recognition, unlike skyfire and bears, was something he couldn't protect himself from or see coming. That didn't mean he'd welcome it. He sympathized all too well with Flint's reaction to the process of it being explained.

All the talk of having children outside of Recognition rankled too, if in a different way. So many of these elves had apprently achieved Elyro's nightmarish dream: sharing their very blood with this world, reproducing the same way as its creatures, leaving most if not all magic behind. He couldn't claim they were like Elyro in any other sense, but the mere fact of them existing, of their peoples having done well for themselves outside a facsimile of a Palace, seemed to prove Elyro's philosophies right. Maybe Steepside would have prospered if they too had rushed out into nature and abandoned all the old ways.

To distract himself from that thought and his own dread of Recognition, Keleero open-sent:

**You're all acting as if you've never seen anyone have their soul name used against them.** Despite his lack of shared emotions or images, he couldn't help but let slip the reality that he certainly had seen such horrors.

Given how puzzled Flint looked at all this information, Crispin chimed in once more, keeping her role as a mediator – she had a lot of years on many of them, but that didn't made her experiences any more valuable than theirs. Especially not in this world of mixed cultures.

**Recognition has brought me great joy, but sadness too. It depends on the circumstances. But I've not heard of soul names used against another – I can't imagine it'd be possible, with mine. There's nothing in it to harm.** was her reply to Keleero, hoping he'd elaborate yet choosing not to ask openly, to pressure him. Some horrors could not be spoken about easily.