Another concept that exists on Levis, in the culture of the sea captains of Oceanus is the idea of "Stick your hand in a shark's mouth, get bit" and Thalia was firmly in the 'get bit' stage of dealing with mysterious ancient artifacts.
She had not at all expected her little experiment to rip a hole in reality and pull out a person. All the tales and fables of humans had them just appear, not be ripped through, like grasping a moving fish in a pond. Though what the average foliad would do with a moving fish was beyond her.
Her arm throbs and the pyromancer takes a large step back from the human and the space where the tear in reality existed. The metal case still pulses behind her, even as Br1n has cancelled the 'music' and the outside of said case is that sheer surface once more.
"He-hello?" The human, a man with straight red hair and skin that was way too pale to be natural to her eyes, crouched with one hand on the library floor to brace himself.
Thalia watched with care as he rubbed his hand over the shiny library floor, as if he was not used to the texture. He wore something on or in his arm and his outfit was this weird shiny grey, like the solar cell leaves only artificial, skin tight and torn in places - likely from the journey.
"Hello?" He tries again and it IS strange that they all can understand him. Until she looks over his shoulder and sees that Br1n is translating for them and that the human's mouth is making different words to the ones he is saying. How she knows what to do is something someone more linguistic will have to explore.
He moves towards them, and gripping her damaged arm, Thalia moves to intercept. "Hello human, welcome to the Academy of Natare."
His brow furrows, "Academy, like old learning institution?" He seems to think about this slowly. "And what is this world?"
"The continent is Levis, you are in the city of Natare. We do not really name the greater world. You come from a place where they do?"
The human laughs at Thalia, and she bristles a little, lip curling over teeth in an instinctual repelling of him mocking her.
"Natare it is then." The human says with a still continuous chuckle. He wanders away from them and picks up a book, flipping it open until a wave of holographic text runs over its inner covers. "I'm Marcus, from Tyr. I'm an engineer at Leftward Technologies."
"Macus from Tyr. Understood." Thalia says, trying to parse everything he says, even as he seems to not be receiving translations visually to understand folliad text. That must be frustrating as she watches him put the book back wrong. He seems to be aligning the book binder mark rather than the color code that categorises the books around the room., almost like he cannot see it or doesn't deem it important. The ultra red book goes near the red book after all.
Next he heads to one of the students still in the library after the mass exodus when the sound reached its peak. He was asking to have someone's jacket for money. As if that was a thing people did. Thalia rubs her nose, grasping Macus by the shoulder.
Get bit indeed.
Yarrow enjoyed the complexity of Natare life. Especially the long runs before training. Others told them that they were too reckless, likely to burn themselves out if they did not stop using every inch of every fibre of their being. Yarrow did not have the heart to tell them that Yarrow was barely using 30% of what they had to offer the world.
Yarrow was a twinform - what the reader might think of as a lycanthrope, though neither wolves, nor the moon where involved in the process. Emotion was though, and so Yarrow spent alot of time trying for the sensations of exhaustion or numbness - usually through alcohol.
Indeed Yarrow tended to trade a favor or two to the brew-woman Esther in exchange for a flask of good solid distilled gourd. Yarrow calls it Burn-Ju, others just call it the gold stuff. Its not illegal, just not as common as Starberry wine and that stuff seems to have a stranglehold over the city.
Still. Yarrow is out this mist filled morning to do their usual run through the city. Up from their apartment in lower Natare, across the bridge, past the arboretum and the Grand Sakura tree. Into the academy grounds before anyone is awake, and up the outside stairs of the library and then back down, out the north gate and into the forest for a bit until the path can double back and lead them to the training area just outside the city where the combat mages train.
It is at the edge of the forest where Yarrow feels the loss of control first shimmy to the surface, black feathers forming at the elbows, over that dark green skin. They itch each time they push through the skin, and today they are soon accompanied by the thick reptilian feet growing from foliad ones, massive and heavy claws digging into the cured limestone path.
They slow to a hobble, too many teeth forming in their mouth, as a deep growl rumbles their chest. Just a little more and Yarrow will be out of sight of the city and the savage transformation will not be easily seen to those near the walls. They stumble to a tree, biting their lip as rage and panic slowly floods their system. They are so SICK of pretending to be ok, to be nice when all they want to do is run and fight and scream at the suns on a wide open field and....
They find the tree line and breathe, shuddering breaths that go snout to claws, until snout returns to being nose and claws are a little less sharp. Everything is in a state of maybes and what ifs as Yarrow crawls themself into the hollow dug beneath the trunk of a eucalypt and assumes the foetal position.
They rest there, hands curled around their knees, as the world becomes too hard, too loud, too much. The pungent leaf litter, dried but then soaked by the damper forest ground soothes them, and they press their face into the mulch.
Moments pass before a gentle hum fills the air, soft and lyrical. "Come now, twinform, it is alright. Mother Astrid has you now."
A black hand with delicate nails reaches in and pulls Yarrow around, checking their face and brushing back dead leaves. The being is human, except for for those long ears, with white lightning scars along her arms and a massive mane of wild hair. There is TOO MUCH of her for their eyes to focus on and Yarrow clenches them shut to just try and deal.
Magic swirls the air and Yarrow feels the world narrow and small, even as Astrid helps Yarrow up and out from the hollow. "Dry your eyes young one, it is too early in the day for it all to be ruined by the world being too big." As much as Yarrow tries to, the world seems as big as this woman and her hair, the morning mist swirling around them before being eaten by the dark. The sounds are all gone apart from the beating of Yarrow's heart and the humming of Astrid's voice.
"Come now, walk with me. You will be late, but you will be safe. You have my word." Astrid tells him, her outfit a swirl of tattered rags that spin her comely form. She leads Yarrow's slowly calming form through barely seen woods full of weeping eucalyptus and trees full of small purple leaves, before they come on a massive wooden stump, twisted on itself from the corpse of an old massive tree, but green growing through the cracks to mark new life.
The darkness fades when they enter inside and a large cottage is revealed to Yarrow. A cauldron made from a hollowed gourd sits up a magic circuit that bubbles flame, and inside sits a orange looking stew. A bench grows across the east wall, covered in cooking utensils, and chopped herbs and forgotten artifacts. Skulls of creatures and bindings pepper a bookcase to the east, and candles that drip with some sort of plant wax float around the air.
"Now. You are going to need a tonic for now, and a talisman for the whole stress thing, which I should remind you, should be worn at all times. Now where is my Lathnin?" She looks around for more equipment, plucking a small mouse looking skull and lacing it with cord. between its eye sockets she weaves some dried materials and drops a view eyedroppers of a strong scent that laces with that eucalyptus again. Her hands make a motion and the eyes seal over, and she ties the talisman around his neck.
"Have you eaten? Of course not, you're trying to pretend, you're trying to act like those from the city and starving yourself. You are going to pick up a trade, something you can sell so that you can get more potatoes and heavy foods into your diet. You need meat, but you're not near Brambleberry and there's no way to sneak you a licence." She takes a ladle and scoops him a bowl of that orange soup, pushing it to his hands before she continues to hunt for things for this tonic she spoke of.
"One of the others would do this better, I'm a wilds witch, but you are here, with me, and so that is what we get. Eyes up, you are young, you are dumb and I do not have time for you to appreciate the vessel."
Yarrow pulls their eyes from admiring her legs, looking back at the talisman and running a thumb over it. It might be hard to hide a whole rodent skull with full jaw from their friends. Maybe more scarves were needed for their wardrobe?
Yarrow feels their head tilted back as Astrid wanders over, making a gesture while a floating mortar and pestle work at crushing something up. "Now it is not going to taste nice, but this and your untouched bowl of soup are going to keep you calm, at least for the moment." She pours a fluid into the mortar and taps their chin with a long purple nail. "Now open."
Dutifully they open their mouth, feeling the viscous liquid pouring down their throat. Their world calms, the beating of their heart a distant memory as they are dragged to the here and now and the warmth and coziness of this witch's cottage.
All would be right in time.
Finding a house for the human had proven less vexing than Thalia had thought, especially with Yarrow doing most of the talking with Natare city council for her. Br1n had indicated Orion had invited her to his estate, but Thalia would need to think on that before she went anywhere near that man.
For now she was playing keep away with the emotional toddler that was Marcus. He had a tendancy to touch everything, from the buildings and membrane doors, to the many legged transport carts - indicating that wheels were much more common on his side of the Tear, as she was calling it.
The case had been moved to a far laboratory in the north of the city - surrounded by holo-books of course, and she had to pay reparations for the damage she had caused to the Grand Library and the people who had left - as public service in tending to the arboretum. But that was a later problem, for now she was trying to get Marcus to stop swatting at the glimmer that seemed to surround him.
"I still don't understand how you have sentient fireflies powered by joy." Marcus says as he turns to her.
"They are not fireflies - they are beings of pure magic, conjured into being by strong, positive emotions." Thalia says frustrated, her toes curling on the cobblestone path, as she watches him try to scoop a glimmer towards his face.
Verdan had told her that this human was her problem, at least until she could work the 'communication device' to send him back.
She rubs the brace on her arm, the salve beneath the bindings making her skin feel oily and itchy and she ached with that dull pain that made Marcus' every irritation just worse.
"Bugs that glow aren't really something that happens around here - one would guess that your 'fireflies' illuminate to attract a mate, but in an ecosystem with so much bio-luminosity, with so many things that glow and are powered by the two suns, it would be a..." She looks up to watch him wander off. "And you are gone."
The other thing that annoys her about Marcus is that he doesn't even pretend to respect her - there is no listening to what she has to say, he doesn't respect how she has said they do things and he's just so grr. Sure, he is not bad on the eyes once you get past the pale-ness of his skin, they had a whole five minute conversation about how green and the shades of brown skin in Natare are actually the weird thing thank-you-very-much, before he had gotten bored and tried to inspect the insect hatcheries nearby to one of the public food gardens. (Thalia had decided she dare not explain those lest he think it acceptable to pick other people's food.)
He understood money well, and jobs, and had quickly picked up on how barter worked for the people of the city, but seemed to find it strange when he saw so many people walking around during the day.
"A city this size could not support this many people without jobs." Marcus had said in a moment of undistracted calm.
"Jobs are needed throughout the day, and once you have completed your tasks, the city encourages you to learn and enrich yourself - the dial must turn, but that does not mean that the pieces do not need lubrication."
"And what is your job then?" Marcus had asked critically and she had been forced to stop and try to word it out.
"I am currently an assistant to the researcher and Professor Blackbough, but in a student capacity."
"Like an aide, or teacher's assistant, or like an intern - an unpaid labourer for a not physically heavy job?" She had frowned at Marcus' words, that people would exist on his side of the tear that did that intern thing was madness to her, but this was a new world for him and so she would keep critiques to his world to a minimum. Though Br1n must be having her work cut out for her with the translations.
"Like an aide. I receive a stipend from the Academy when I complete my bindings, and they supply me with the resources needed to exist."
"And rent?" The word Marcus says feels wrong. Like a obscenity, or an accusation.
"Br1n. Is there any concept similar to the rent Mr Marcus speaks of?" Thalia chews over the word. Obviously it is an expense, obviously it is important but....
"Oh that's cool, you people have an AI, I would not have expected such from you all. I mean obviously hippy aliens are going to have some sort of technology, and you did have holograms on your books - but an AI? That just seemed impossible - yet here it, she? is." Marcus is back animated and distracted, pushing his hand through the air of the terminals that dot the street and enable Br1n to be accessed by all.
He rubs the weird bracelet that seems on and under his wrist, muttering to himself as he works. When his brow furrows the wrong way, she sees him give up and just go back to trying to interact with Br1n about foreign concepts.
But what he'd said just keeps replaying in her mind. Was she like this intern he spoke of? Ignoring the money of it all - was there ever a point where she'd felt like she was exploring concepts or learning that interested her. Legally at least. Verdan had helped her from becoming just another also ran in the academic rat race, but there was something about the fact that it had taken Orion stepping in before she had gotten her hands on anything juicy. She would have to unpack this all later. For now she had to show Marcus his home - and stop him from putting his hand in the rainwater filtration unit!
