Jun 21 13:10:37 106 PA - Odd ducks, all around
From Chronicles
Tue Jun 21 13:10:37 106 PA
Kingsdale - Golden Carafe
The Golden Carafe is an apartment complex of about fifty units. Not massive by any stretch of the word. It is shaped like a giant square with the interior open to a very large grassed courtyard. This courtyard is lined with benches, trees and shrubbery and is generally a very good place to sit and be left alone. One can often see people using the various benches for just that, many choosing to simply relax under the trees. The units are spacious, double and triple bedroom with standard fixtures and everythng that is to be expected as buildings go. What is not so standard however, is that for the most part each and every unit is run on magic. The light fixtures are powered by spells as are most of the other utilities. The result is a place that is somewhat expensive to live, but caters to specific tastes. Those who wish to be surrounded by their craft and collegues flock here by the dozens.
An odd sort of music filters down through the courtyard. A blue cloth folding chair sits in the courtyard near a bench, parasol over to provide an unnaturally dark shade. Before it rests a block of polished wood draped with blak satin, and resting like the cherry on top is the Eye of Darkness. A bowling-ball-sized chunk of rose stone fractured through with dark lines, the shadows inside seem to dance as it emits an eerie, high-pitched yet mournful sort of tune. One might miss the musician in the unnatural darkness behind the stone, shades of grey and black merging to nearly hide Ahriman's dark eyes as they sweep the lush courtyard. Ebony hands pass occasionally over the front of the rose stone as he plays, temporarily eclipsing that orb into night.
Up up a good seven floors Tirzah sits in her window, relaxing and enjoying fickle day in all its beauty. She hums a tune that caries on the wind and oddly meshes with the eerie music below more often than not. She watches the darkness wander from 70 feet up.
Sliding from his room, staff in hand, Calex seems about ready to begin his exploration of this strange city. He's delighted, as he reaches the small courtyard, to see his first spectacle worth noting, a strange being of which he's heard many stories about perched under a parasol, gathering its shadows underneath the protective awning. Feet not touching the ground he approaches, gliding down the stairs with a rare smile. His body flickers as he approaches, "Hello in their," he says as his feet touches the ground, his eyes taking in the odd shape, "I'm not disturbing you?" he says the words, but one might assume he doesn't care if he is.
The musician's fingers don't slow, rather they take up another tune. Everything he plays is vaguely eastern in a way one couldn't quite place without musical training. It's generic in a very specific way, somewhat familiar, and always done in the minor key. Dances set in harmonies heard in requiems. Black eyes turn up at the interruption, narrowing as he inspects the boy. "You're not from this planet," he rumbles quietly, his fingers in motion, before stopping over the eye. The E above middle C is held as he stares at the unusual being, bidding in a quiet voice that descends nearly into individual clicks for lack of volume, "Touch the stone."
Things get interesting as someone well dressed approaches the shadow. Tirzah watches closely as she steps away from her window to float above the exchange for a moment. Descending she sinks down to just 30 feet up, hearing range. She raises a brow as she sees the stranger is not just floating as well but gliding along. Curious.
Calex's eyes go wide as he grins, "I surely am, though you are surely not." his head tilts to the side as he stretches out his seemingly clawed hand, the silvered tips resting gently on the surface before sliding outwards, leading his palm to rest finally against the the gentle curve, "A Silhouette," he muses as she stares at the orb, "Who'd have thought." he appears to be talking to himself, his head titling, "And such an odd device." he smiles once more, waiting as he leans forward on his staff, the viney tendrils that top it blowing in the non existent wind.
The orb remains on its simple note of E, even as the intruder touches it, which causes Ahriman to looks away disinterestedly. "I've been here since the first megaliths were formed on the fertile crescent. To say I am not of this place is disingenuous at best." He brushes at that clawed hand, the orb beneath wailing unhappily at the motion, and he frowns up at the odd man. The music begins again as Ahriman's fingers dance, looking practiced. "Are you this gaudy by choice, or have you so very little control?" he wonders, eyes on the rose-colored stone below.
Tirzah just shakes her head as the proverbial ball drops and so does she. Allowing herself to land with a bit of an impact like a normal jump on the pavement she can probably be noticed right away. Her mid shoulder length red hair free and askew in the wind. "Reminds me a little of you actually, little control." She notes clearly to Ahriman with a slight smirk. "Maybe he has better things to control?" She proposes, just for fun.
"I am not in control, no, though my current condition is fairly new to me. In time, it will happen only when i wish," he stops then, looking up at the new arrival, his back straightening as he pushes up with his staff, "It takes great control to lie with such entusiasm, and I find myself wish I had his talents," a smile at the woman is offered, but his attention if focused quickly on the shadowy being, "I mean very little disrespect, but I know enough to know you have not been here since the Babylon, as you claim. Or perhaps you were there then, but you've certainly not lived and existed that whole time." he doesn't seem to care that much as he calls you out, but he smiles anyway, "Though why such a magnificent creature would find it nessasary to embelish on himself..." he shakes his head.
Ahriman casts Tirzah a look, though what it means is up in the air. The silver's bleeding from his eyes, leaving a flat, unmitigated black behind as he smiles up at Calex. His head tilts to the right, lips twitching once, before they curl back into a broad smile. His eyes shift back towards Tirzah, humor touching the low rumble of his words as he speaks, "I am slipping. That is a note of condescension generally reserved for my own dulcet tones."
Tirzah returns the smile at the stranger, which grows to a wide grin at his observation. "Now there's a wise man Ahriman. He knows grace when he sees it. He needs no past or deeds illuminate intrinsic beauty that is darkness. He can simply see its avatar and accept it for what it is. A view many about here would look at him strangely for, but one I can appreciate." She illustrates to the darkling before stepping through his shadow to hold her hand out to the man. "I am Tirzah, a warlock." She introduces forwardly. "Ahriman is my friend, and sometimes misunderstood, but not by you I see."
"A being so in tune with magic is a marvel to be emulated, not feared," he says with reverence in his voice, "But darkness can be frightening for those who haven't mastered it." He flickers briefly, hand on his staff as he bows low, "I am Calex, and it is a pleasure to meet you both. Such diversity in this place, I honestly never expected. Still, I am pleased to meet kindred spirits, in what ever form they may take."
"A pity," Ahriman speaks softly, looking up at Calex. His fingers have fallen still over that rose orb, holding a quiet, neutral tone. The liquid inside is chased away by his fingers, pooling at the opposite side, leaving small streaks of white fault lines below his hands. "People who think run in a hundred directions every day. Induce a fear response and they become predictable. A little adrenaline and humans become much easier to understand. I prefer those who are afraid of the dark."
Tirzah giggles as she looks back to Ahriman. "That's like saying chaos is predictable." Slowly walking around the darkling she nods. "No the darkness hides many things. Many evils, but in so they are hidden and dont have to be faced. Without darkness all that is evil and horrid would be exposed for us to take in without escape. Darkness makes the world bearable." She concludes as she makes her way around to face Calex again. "I wouldn't call us diverse. Not that you are wrong about the city in general. But he is elemental and I am an elementalist. We are very much kin from different origins."
"Such a human trait, to be afraid of that which you don't understand, and to want the path of least resistance, to shy away from that which is difficult." he lets out a small chuckle, silver-clawed fingers tapping softly on the wooden staff that almost seems to writhe in his hand, "Perhaps you really have been here as long as you claim, and picked up some of our less desirable tendencies?" a smirk find his lips as he looks over at Tirzah, offering her a gentle shrug as he regards her, "Though perhaps that makes him easier to like, Hmmm?" he smiles at the woman, "To seek to understand the elements is certainly a fair pursuit. Not one for me, but perhaps we've more in common than not."
"I am of this planet," Ahriman assets firmly. "I don't deny it. I celebrate it. Until recently you people were doing so well." He shifts forward, eyes tracking Tirzah as she circles him, and the shade of his parasol expands oddly so that it dims the light about her as well. A very peculiar-looking trick, that, as if the sun suddenly shifted in position for just that one shadow. He agrees, "The city is far from homogeneous. Small pockets of the same bundled together in variety. It relies on an exogenous threat. Without which, this place would tear itself apart."
Tirzah nods slowly, considering the man's statement. "Perhaps." Is all she offers in reply, not looking decided on the matter at all. "What do you seek to understand then?" She asks to press the point as her smile grows sly. Then stepping under the parasol disappears a moment to apparently share something before stepping out again.
"The core of magic itself is where I find myself most facinated, though some of things and shapes magic take can be fun, such as your use of elements." he has no hint of teasing or sarcasm in his voice, "I find myself wondering about magic as a whole, of its ability to create life and intelligence, and how it exists in everything, permeates all life." he smiles at that, confidence growing in his voice as he speaks, "Becoming a being of magic, to undestand it so well as to incorporate it into my being, that is my interest, and the path i've started on."
Ahriman's eyes track Tirzah, though his bass rumble is wholly incapable of whispering. "I have never been that, Little Sister. I never had to be. Just an idea, whispered in the dark." That black being's head ducks as Calex speaks, his mane fanning behind him, and in a flicker of motion he wraps the Eye of Darkness in its velvet and lifts it in his hand. Those dark orbs flash at Calex, bearing a hint of red as he glowers at the would-be magical being. The lines of his perfect face sink into a gruesome frown before he turns, walking away with some haste through the light of day. Shadows that fall near him elongate grossly to caress Ahriman's tall form on his path back towards the apartments, away from the odd human and his one friend.
Tirzah smirks at Calex and his grandiose aims. "To understand magic that well? I don't think the two go hand in hand. After all, magic is an intrinsic part of my being and I don't really understand it. I have a direct link to a plane that is a thousand times more mystically potent. Yet I cannot learn or teach it. Only by using it and becoming more familiar do I get more adept. In most cases I know less about magic than first year students of the gift. So I skeptically wish you luck with that." She offers before turning to look at Ahriman as he departs.
Calex looks over at the Shadowy being as he leaves, face once more becoming stoic as he vanishes for a second, and re-appears, "Farewell to you then," he says towards the seemingly fleeing being, "Perhaps we can play together, some day," he smiles, "Musically, I mean, my own training is far eastern, so we have that in common?" he shrugs, eyes falling to the wrapped orb as the man goes, "He's quite odd, not at all what I expected from his race, I wonder now how true the stories I were told were." fingers tap on the staff as his feet lift from the ground, smiling at the warlock once more "I've been well taught, and my first guided steps were aided by those who've made much progress in the task. I have high hopes that I too will unlock the mysteries I seek. But it seems I must find something of myself Here before then, or so i've been told."
Tirzah shrugs helplessly as she turns back from watching Ahriman head back into the building. "Well, my statement stands, good luck with that." She offers with a sincerely postive tone atleast before she walks back into the building herself.
