Meteion / The Meteia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
finalefantasy) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sheep_game2024-02-22 08:21 pm
finalefantasy) wrote in sheep_game2024-02-22 08:21 pm
Entry tags:
springle (spring mingle)
WHO: you
WHERE: wherever
WHEN: afternoon into evening 61
[the spring thaw continues! how's that scent of fresh wet grass and the sounds of critters popping back up, huh?
towards evening, there's another strange smell on the breeze (ozone? oleander?) and a soft flurry of tiny dark feathers blown into the pasture and meadow.
if they happen to land on you, you may have a weird moment where you experience the perspective of some other, non-sentient creature in the area -- a squirrel scratching about in a nearby tree, for example, or a frog swimming in one of the team ponds, or one of the local songbirds stretching its wings and digging for worms.
it's harmless, and might be interesting, but it's also briefly disorienting. try not to fall on your face or into the lazy river.]
WHERE: wherever
WHEN: afternoon into evening 61
[the spring thaw continues! how's that scent of fresh wet grass and the sounds of critters popping back up, huh?
towards evening, there's another strange smell on the breeze (ozone? oleander?) and a soft flurry of tiny dark feathers blown into the pasture and meadow.
if they happen to land on you, you may have a weird moment where you experience the perspective of some other, non-sentient creature in the area -- a squirrel scratching about in a nearby tree, for example, or a frog swimming in one of the team ponds, or one of the local songbirds stretching its wings and digging for worms.
it's harmless, and might be interesting, but it's also briefly disorienting. try not to fall on your face or into the lazy river.]
no subject
Yeah. Crescendo has the benefit of being on the same flock with him, and thus... having been subjected to a number of intrusive emotion and memory-sharing ordeals. He thinks he probably knows him more than those off their flock. But even then, he remains something of a mystery.
The difference, he thinks, is that he is aware Minuet would never harm any of them and is more embarrassing and silly than this book appears to record.
Next page, however...!]
no subject
Species: Human
Abilities: Magic (general)
A classmate of Leviathan, Belle, and many others in the pasture. He is of particular importance to Belle specifically, though the nature of their relationship is currently unknown. They seem very close, however, and Rubato's scent has been detected on Belle and around his room, which leads one to believe Rubato visits the Rose barn with some regularity, especially when Belle is experiencing difficulties of some kind. Belle has also expressed the desire to perform some manner of theatrical entertainment for him as a way of celebrating his birth.
Rubato, being a student of Night Raven College, should theoretically be capable of similar magic as his classmates. He has been seen flying on a broom, but his specialties are currently unknown. He has expressed interest in anthropology and apparently grew up around animals, to the point where he said he feels more at home with animals than humans sometimes.
He appreciate the beauty and wonder of the natural world, possesses a curious and accepting personality, and the author finds him agreeable and pleasant to be around. One does not often feel understood by others, and especially not by humans, but he feels like he could be a kindred spirit of some kind.
no subject
He hums and turns to the next page. He supposes that he is next.]
no subject
Species: human (feline features not native traits)
Abilities: singing, dancing, entertaining, etc. No magic.
Most interactions with Crescendo have revolved around the concept of humans being kept in captivity in Pulmungt, which he was, for some time, sure to bring up at every available opportunity. He seems to take this fact as a very personal offense, insisting that it is unethical to keep humans in captivity even though it is perfectly acceptable to incarcerate and enslave other species that he personally deems "inferior" for reasons he is sure to justify on the spot. He seems either naïve or willfully dismissive about the breathtakingly cruel actions humans have perpetrated against zmeu, other species, and even each other, including the fact that even humans have kept each other in zoos in their recent history. He has called zmeu culture "uncivilized" and has even challenged the author to a battle of wits to prove human's superiority. It seems to be more important to establish himself as the rightful victor than it is to entertain new ideas or consider different perspectives. Dealing with Crescendo has made one reconsider one's previous attitude of finding humans cute and endearing. Perhaps this really is the way humans are after all: ignorant, stubborn, judgmental, and self-centered. He called himself a "knight" once. If these are the qualities humans favor in their heroes, then perhaps knights and dragons really are incompatible, after all. Keeping them in captivity in Pulmungt probably was the right call all along.
There was a relatively recent occasion when Crescendo was ill and resting in the clinic. He was hungry, so one retrieved some food for him. Since that day, he has not brought up human zoos even once. It is difficult not to notice the correlation between his abrupt change in attitude and someone performing a service for him. Did he interpret this as the act of submission he so desired? Who even cares. I never want to speak with him about Pulmungt again, because if we have to have more long arguments about parts of history and society I have no control over, I'm going to drown him in the lake with my own two hands.
Speaking of which, Leviathan seems extremely fond of him for some reason. They traded bodies recently and Leviathan would not let me pierce Crescendo's ears no matter how much I asked. :(
no subject
. . . And the bit about pierced ears.
Regardless, he moves onto his next flockmate.]
no subject
Caesura
Species: Human
Known abilities: Hunting (especially with a bow), killing extremely dangerous predators, shapeshifting
Caesura possesses a profound passion for amphibians, particularly the Lesser Baldurian Tree Frog. They have excellent powers of observation and take careful and perceptive notes, despite no training, and would have made an exceptional herpetologist if they'd ever been given the chance. Considering the human lifespan, it might not be too late.
Recently, the author had a strange dream about Caesura, and wonders if it was one of the shared dreams that are possible in the pasture. In this dream, one met a character who called himself "Master Warden." He claimed that he rescued Caesura as a child when he found them surviving what should have been an unsurvivable situation for a young human. Taking this as a sign of their potential, he trained them to be a hunter, and all but crushed their spirit in the process. While it's impossible to deny that Caesura did indeed become wildly proficient in what they did, one thinks that if they'd had the opportunity to follow their passions, they'd be even better still at the things they actually want to do. One wants to see them succeed.
They shot the author's eye out with an arrow once, and offered their own eye in replacement. It was probably the kindest gesture one has ever received.
no subject
[This seems accurate to Caesura. And he cannot help but agree that he believes they would have blossomed beautifully having been given the freedom to do as they want themselves, too.
He turns the page to Fantasia, next.]
no subject
Species: Human
Known Abilities: Cartography, broadsword combat, magical control over plants, and (presumably) the ability to animate objects.
Fantasia has been instrumental in the continued procurement of limbus. He is often accompanied by two seemingly AI-powered levitating mechanical devices he calls Tempo and Vibrato, which are outfitted with both scanning implements and weapons. They can be deactivated with honeysuckle, which means they must also be powered by magic of some kind, though the exact mechanism is unclear.
Interactions with Fantasia have been too brief and infrequent to form much of an opinion about him, but he is friendly and seems to display typical human agreeableness when it comes to lending assistance.
no subject
He turns to her own.]
no subject
Species:Human
Known Abilities: Magic (barriers, can summon a phantasm in the shape of a masked woman to fight on her behalf), axe combat, horticulture
Melody is brave, relentless, and deeply perplexing. She insisted on being friends and would not take no for an answer, even when threatened with injury or death. She refused to be discouraged or questioned on the matter. Why she wants to be "friends" so badly is a mystery that may never be solved.
She is an excellent gardener and took great care of the limbus garden behind the clinic. For that, we are grateful.
no subject
no subject
[What will Crescendo do next, if anything?]
no subject
no subject
[The library is huge and meandering, and (in the way of dreams) the floorplan doesn't make much sense if you were to stop to think about it too hard. But the one thing that's consistent throughout is that it's quiet, and peaceful, and beautiful, and safe. There is nobody who will hurt you here.]
[As he wanders around, he'll see that the library is actually more like a jumble of different buildings all coexisting inside the same walls. Bookshelves are interspersed with bits that look like they might be portions of a fantastical natural history museum: mounted skeletons of animals that have too many limbs. Strange and exotic beetles and butterflies with exquisite colors pinned and mounted in glass cases on the walls. Fossils of fish and ammonites and ancient leaves on tidy little display stands.]
[If he walks long enough, he might be able to see glimpses of more recognizable things. A washing machine from the pasture's laundromat is tucked between the books. An apple tree is growing in the center of some part of a room somewhere. There's a work table that looks like the one from the new laboratory, where someone who looks like Azdaja is doing delicate work of some kind.]
no subject
Eventually, he makes it to the room with the worktable and knocks lightly on the open door.]
Enjoying the new laboratory?
no subject
[But, maybe his human sensibilities will persist and override this opinion. Who can say for sure!]
[When he announces himself, Azdaja looks up from her work. She's mounting a taxidermied limbus bulb in a frame like it were a huge insect, with a pin going through it to hold it to the foam backing.]
[She smiles at him, and when she speaks, her voice sounds the same as ever, but somehow like ten years younger at the same time.]
Yes! It's rudimentary and crude, but even this feels more like home already.
It's... comfortable, you know? Having something slightly familiar in such a strange place.