TEST DRIVE #6

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

Comments

[liven]

Why would you want to eat something that tastes of despair? I could understand eating something that despairs, but that doesn't change the taste.

[ Said like a cat, rather than a sadist. Playing with her food is something Shijima is entirely familiar with. It's more fun to terrify than to eat, sometimes. Humans do not usually agree, since it is apparently some sort of ill-mannered thing, to play with one's food.

Or to eat things raw, given most of the reactions she's gotten on that count. ]

And what game is that? Do they play with their food, these Orlesians?

[magestache]

Ah, but wouldn't it be lovely to choose when you could taste it? Really savor your sorrows?

[ He's starting to sound like Cole, when really he's just trying to lead this poor girl on. Okay, Dorian, rein it back. It's not like he'll get all that deep in a conversation with a little girl. Dorian u in for a surprise. ]

One might say they do! [ He chuckles, the mental image enough to make him smile. ] Theirs is a game of intrigue and secrets. Lots of murder and dancing and the most extravagant masks you'll ever see. If I'm in the proper understanding of it, the masks are the only fun part.

[ Right, cause that's a lot of fun. But you know, kids. Masks. Maybe she cares. ]

[liven]

[ Shijima is used to being treated as a child, really. If she would simply look older - but she's never cared to alter her form and fake aging, as Kouichi bothered to do. And it doesn't tend to bother her what people think. ]

I suppose. [ Doubtfully. ] You all have strange ideas about food. [ Humans, she means. Collectively. ]

So the murder and dancing aren't fun? They sound more interesting than masks. Masks are useless. People smell the same even if they wear them. Move the same. I guess some are good enough to pretend they don't, though.

[magestache]

It's all a grand metaphor, if the tales are to be believed. I can't say I'm well-versed in the matter once way or another, one does not become a scholar from attending a single party.

[ He sure talked like he knew everything though, wow Dorian. Shijima is officially the strangest kid he's met. ...well, maybe not as strange as Cole, but. ]

Perhaps. But dancing is a bit more fun than murder, isn't it? Less mess for the servants to clean up after, and I do hate staining my robes.

[liven]

The imps don't care about cleaning up that sort of thing. [ Murder, she means. Then Shijima pauses, frowning. ] Unless you murder them. Then I suppose they care. People don't much care for it if you try, though. They give a bunch of well-meaning advice about how you shouldn't.

[ Because they are meddling meddlers who meddle...no one would let her murder an imp it was rude. She could have just done it anyway, but they were so reasonable about why she shouldn't. ]

I've never danced. [ She adds, after a beat. Because, well, she hasn't. It isn't as though Shijima has spent a great deal of time at parties until she came to Drabwurld and had to sit through so many in a row. ]

[magestache]

Is that something that happens quite often, murdering imps? Whatever for?

[ Sounds like a blood ritual, oh joy. Then again, an imp's blood might not even work. Not that Dorian would want anyone to try. Why is a kid killing imps, girl you're giving Cole a run for his money. ]

Not even once? It's not for everyone, but perhaps you should try it. Like I said, it's more fun than murder, surely.

[liven]

Not really. I was going to kill the ones that brought me here, but then I didn't. Lumina got them to apologize.

[ A flippant wave of her hand. It wouldn't have been a ritual, just...

...well, she'd been annoyed. It's been over a month, and she's given it up, now. ]

Not even once. The bird might have. I don't know. I've spent more time at human gatherings in human form here than I ever have before. No one's ever bothered to ask me to dance.

[magestache]

Ah.[ Oh, dear. ] You're quite the violent child, aren't you?

[ hey, he won't judge. The world's a big place. Kids gotta do what they gotta do. ]

Well, that does explain it. [ GUESS YOU'RE A DEMON, HUH. Congrats, Shijima. ] Dancing is an alarmingly human thing to do. Even if I explained it to you, I can't really explain why we started doing it. Or why some people are terrible at it while others are quite good.

[ He tried teaching Cole to dance once. It... didn't end well. ]

[liven]

I'm probably older than you are. [ Although she has to pause and eye him suspiciously, because she might...not be...there are a bunch of pesky immortals here, and while she's older than some of them, she isn't older than all of them. It annoys her in a very vague way; she's not used to anyone or anything being older than her. ] How old are you?

[ But then she shrugs. Humans doing weird things for no reason, you say? Perfectly natural. ]

It's like ice-skating, probably. I've done that. The bird made me.

[magestache]

Oh, I don't doubt that. I'm only twenty-five, and still so handsome.

[ NOT OFFICIALLY... WE DON'T KNOW... BUT HE'S YOUNG... young for the Inquisition, anyway. ]

It can be like ice-skating. If you're bad enough, you'll trip just as well.

[ Maybe he can teach Cole how to ice skate, then move onto dancing from there. That almost seems cruel, though. Still, Dorian's curiosity gets the better of him. He can't not ask. ]

So are you a spirit of some sort? This bird as well?

[liven]

Well, see? I'm over two hundred. [ And she sounds pleased, anyway......good she is the elder one in this conversation as it should be. Elders are allowed to be incredibly rude to their juniors! ...Not that Shijima isn't just habitually mannerless with everyone. ]

I'm not a spirit. I'm an immortal. [ Despite her best efforts to stop being immortal and die already, this is true. ] The bird is, too. He's not here, though. Just me.

[magestache]

An immortal? What made you choose that form?

[ Nah, see. You're a spirit. Sorry, Shijima. That's just how it is. Dorian's going with spirit in his head regardless. ]

And your bird, a friend of yours, I take it?

[liven]

It's just the one I ended up in.

[ CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO GO WITH ANYTHING BUT WHAT HAPPENED NATURALLY??? She's kind of lazy. ]

No. [ Firmly. ] We're not friends. He's an ally. [ She frowns, though, because it's...not the best way to describe him. Kouichi is hard to place. ] I suppose the closest human relationship is something like a -

[ - Brother? She doesn't want to say that, either, though. ]

- he nags. He's always there. That.

[magestache]

I suppose it does help you fit in.

[ Which works for him. Cole usually said the same thing. You spirits and your shapeshifting. ]

So he's something of a nagging housewife, then?

[ That's the worst thing on purpose, but this whole conversation has been illuminating, alright. ]

i do that all the time :c

[liven]

It lets me talk to all of you. No one understands how to speak properly.

[ "speak cat", she means. Humans are such helpless losers.

And again Shijima's expression twists. Kouichi...Kouichi actually probably could pull off being a nagging housewife... ]

I suppose you could say we were born at the same time from the same circumstances, and have been together until I came here.

or you fix one thing and there were actually two things wrong...

[magestache]

And what language is it you speak?

[ He's heard of words not being adequate for expressing the... vastness of the Fade and all that, but "cat" is really not up there on his list of guesses. ]

So he's like family. [ Dorian sounds almost fond at the thought of it. Family... Even weird spirits have family, huh? ] That does explain the ever-present nagging.

yes...

[liven]

The language beasts speak.

[ Or, well, she understands other animals as well as cat. It's a Thing. ]

We have the same "mother". So I suppose in the way humans look at things, you're right. But don't tell him I called him anything like family if you ever meet him. [ HE WOULD BE INSUFFERABLE - okay no he wouldn't be but she can't ruin her street cred, Shijima has to give him the hardest time imaginable. ]

can't win

[magestache]

Having to choose between men and the beasts... no wonder you look quite so sour. We humans aren't exactly the smartest bunch, are we?

[ For an immortal spirit, animals would definitely make more sense. ]

Sounds like the closest thing would be your brother. You two must be quite close.

[ Daw, it's cute really. Owl and cat, bros for life. ]

it's okay it was a beautiful tag anyway!!

[liven]

No. But some of you are okay.

[ She has a very small number of people she will admit to having that distinction. But that number exists. More or less.

Shijima wrinkles her nose, but it's true. Kouichi is her brother; she's mocked him and bullied him and teased him by saying otherwise, but that's probably the best explanation for what they are. For all that she's said otherwise, her actions tell the lie.

He always knows that, too. The idiot. ]

I suppose. [ Stand-offish, cattish. But she's admitting it, more or less. ] We've known one another for centuries, anyway. Do you have a brother?

beautiful like dorian's face?

[magestache]

How generous of you.

[ Dorian smirks. Yeah, he can see where the 'beast-like' demeanor comes from. She comes off as something of an angry pet. ]

Alas, I do not. I am an only child-- the product of generations of arranged marriages and "proper" breeding, ensuring a bloodline most pure. [ He scoffs, turning his mocking inward. It's a load of crock, the words dripping with bright, cheery sarcasm. ] Why have more when the first child is already everything my father could have wanted?

of course his face is lovely

[liven]

[ It's her charm, really. Grumpy grandmother cat. Occasionally serene, occasionally prickly...right now Shijima is eyeing Dorian warily. It's easy to spot the sarcasm, but that just sounds...strange.

Humans are weird, but that's a new kind of weird. ]

You're talking about it as though you're a horse. Or a dog. Are you meant to do tricks?

[ She...is under the impression that tact is for people younger than her. So. ]

daw you flatterer you. do go on.

[magestache]

Why, yes I do. I can make fire and lightning and ice, all out of thin air!

[ So to speak. Still, the sarcasm is apparent in his fake cheer. ]

Ah, but that's the way it's done in my home. Everyone does it. Mages are born and bred to maximize a family's magical ability. The stronger the mage, the higher the standing. Why, I could have made Archon someday, if I'd only followed my fathers footsteps and tried to fit in.

[ urk, yeah, this is about as far as he'll get with joking about that part of the whole Tevinter deal. ]

You can imagine why fitting in in a place like that would be rather hard, even with all the right tricks.

i have a weak spot for the party members that snark most

[liven]

[ Shijima snorts, half-amused. ]

"Archon". I assume that is the head of mages, or some such thing. [ Context clues seem to suggest it, anyway. She's actually sharp, but some of the lingo he's used has been lost on her. ]

Don't be an idiot. [ Because this is clearly how you talk to someone you've just met. As though chiding a child, although in Shijima's point of view, that's more or less the case. ] It's better to just do as you please and have everyone else deal with that. Which is why you're implying you did, so you can be proud of that.

[ She's super good at sympathy. Except not particularly. ]

oh boy dorian must be way up there then /curls mustache

[magestache]

Yes, exactly.

[ Though it's more about the prestige than the power, but Dorian isn't about to start discussing Tevinter politics with a beast spirit girl he just met. She may be a stranger, but her words are nice to hear. Running away from home is one of those wounds that won't really heal, for multiple reasons, so every bit of sympathy is welcome. You may have even pierced through a bit of his charming facade, Shijima. Just for like, a second. ]

Hence the reason I left. One day I hope to return to my homeland and fix it if I can. [ This time he smiles, almost for real even. ] But in the meantime there are plenty of other places in need of a handsome mage of considerable pedigree, and ability.

he and varric are my all time favorites THEY MAKE ME LAUGH...

[liven]

Like the one that just recruited you for a war, I presume. [ Although she's not certain he'll bother with that; not everyone does. Shijima herself is only nebulously interested in the conflict, although she'll allow herself to be drawn into smaller affairs, or join in as she pleases to learn more about the world she's trapped in. Her loyalty is hard won and to herself first and foremost, though.

By a lucky twist of fate she does actually rather like a handful of the Unseelie court. That's the nearest thing to loyalty they'll get.

Eyeing him again in silence for a moment, she adds, simply: ]

Shijima Kurookano.

[ As usual, she hasn't bothered with the proper order of things. Speaking to someone at length before deciding, in the end, that she'll learn the name to remember it. But how is she meant to know if she wants to remember a name if she doesn't speak to the person, first? ]