[ Open ] This is What I Brought You

[portolan]

Who: Balthier portolan and you
What: Tarot Reading, return from off-world, open post
When: Mid to late November
Where: Excelsior, his shop, around town
Content Warnings: None so far



OOC: As always, will match prose or brackets.

I. Sign of the Times

[ Business has been...odd...since the near world-ending, since everyone started leaving town, since the guilds have cracked down. It's all the more important he keep the shop safe, but he's that much more wary of people wandering in. So far, the normal folk don't seem to suspect the shop is anything more than a beautiful man with beautiful objects.

But he's been getting restless. So he puts a message out on Our Powers; stop by, guild discounts (either side) and also he's reading tarot.

There's an antique table and two comfortable antique chairs. There are a few decks to choose from. ]

You have a question in mind? You don't have to tell me, but you should think about it while you shuffle.

II. No Place Like Home

[ It's not like Balthier to be low or keep to himself. But between the world almost ending, and then his friends slowly moving our of Excelsior, the anti-meta sentiment threatening the safety of he and his loved ones. He honestly hadn't noticed it eroding his energy.

But after two weeks home, both relieved that his loved ones there are safe and buffeted by the pain of being away from them, he's trying to make a better effort.

So he's reached out, invited people over for tea or dinner, trying to keep this house full and warm as the need to just jump on a ship and go steadily increases. ]

You know this is the longest I've spent tied to one location. There's something enchanting about watching the weather change.

[ He sets out a tray of tea and snacks, all in beautiful antiques. Honestly, eleven months ago, he'd never have expected to get this much comfort out of being so domestic, but here he is. ]

III. Wildcard / Catch-All

[ All your Balthier needs ]

Comments

[portolan]

I think you're right on that. Or a high enough standard that losing what is good in it is more frightening than being stuck with its lows.

[ He'd seen that, over and over. ]

[unkindled_madness]

...I think that's straying into different territory. It can be necessary to weigh the options.

[portolan]

Perhaps you're right.

[ He earned his biases, has vetted and recommitted to them every year since. ]

You don't strike me as someone who is particularly social. I'm pleased you took up my invitation.

[unkindled_madness]

[Wow, Balthier, you're just gonna call him out like that?]

...I am selective. That doesn't mean I detest social interaction.

[portolan]

[ For all his apparent social charm, Balthier has more less learned how to weild his oddnesses. Being blunt is one of them. ]

Clearly. I always enjoy our conversations. Prefer this setting to the world ending or transfiguration, but good conversation is often worth the cost.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth quirks an eyebrow, amused by that.]

The cost of the world ending?

[portolan]

[ He smirks back, always happy to have someone who calls him on his bullshit. Another way Sephiroth reminds him of his other white-haired tall friend. ]

I'd prefer to keep it at just the scare of the world ending, but don't press me because I'm going to say something damning.

[unkindled_madness]

If you're suffering such a deficit of good conversation, I suppose it's good you're making other efforts to remedy that.

[Inviting people to tea instead of dooming the world, and all.]

[portolan]

I do try not bemoan anything I haven't attempted to correct.

Also David likes you. I typically trust his tastes.

[unkindled_madness]

I've always felt David can be... rather hasty in his assessments.

I took you for the reasonable one.

[portolan]

[ That gets a chuckle out of him. ]

You aren't wrong. But he's known you long enough to be clearer headed about it. Also I have my own observations to amend his.

[unkindled_madness]

I suppose, by now, that's true enough. But I do my best to advise him towards a modicum of caution.

[portolan]

Maybe if enough of us try he'll hear it one of these days.

[ Balthier's eyes are creased and his smile warm, though. That particular trait both drives him crazy and sates his deep need for adventure. ]

I'm not holding my breath, though.

[unkindled_madness]

Perhaps he'll develop his own sense of self-preservation, and proceed to ignore it anyway.

[portolan]

Oh, I think he's there already. He always knows exactly what stupid decision he's making.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth chuckles.]

I suppose there's really no helping him then.

[portolan]

No, I fear there isn't. A good thing he has me to be stubborn and reasonable.

[ He'd missed that while he was away. ]

And now I'm going to be nosy. When we were in the image of your world -- your magic is the closest to how mine works, well worked, that I've seen. Does your world have Mist?

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth frowns faintly, and shakes his head.]

There's nothing that we call by that name. How would you define it?

[portolan]

It's a -- mostly omnipresent energy generated by the planet itself. It naturally collects in some materials, like sky stone, but mostly we can be taught to channel it for specific spells, assuming we've been trained in them. [ He'll leave out the complicated licensing system for now. ] My partner was more in tune with it and could do more organic usage.

[unkindled_madness]

[Good, Sephiroth might have some questions about why a pirate would bother with licenses.]

That sounds like the Lifestream. Humans aren't capable of channeling it directly, but it can be condensed to form Materia--a kind of stone, I suppose, which acts as a conduit to the Planet, allowing the use of specific spells.

[portolan]

[ Yes, well, a complicit god-controlled magickal system made them somewhat obligatory. Not that Fran hadn't been teaching him the basics of illicit, more traditional magick. ]

Mm similar, I think. We can't channel it directly and need an intermediary structure to do so. The Viera can channel it directly, but are also more sensitive to its impact.

People were creating artificial stones to channel it. They were -- much too powerful.

[unkindled_madness]

Ours were commonplace. Shinra developed a way to manufacture them.

[Not really in the realm of "much too powerful."]

Who are the Viera?

[portolan]

Shinra? Were they an arm of the government? And it was a recent development?

[ He's fascinated by the ways different worlds overlap and diverge. ]

The Viera are another race -- my world had multiple non-hume groups. They are tall, with the ears and feet of a, ah, hare, I think this world calls it. Long white hair like yours. Excellent hunters. Normally they keep to themselves in the Wood, but my partner was ... atypical.

[unkindled_madness]

Shinra is the dominant power on my world. A corporation with its own military. Materia production increased in the past decade, during the war.

[At "hair like yours," he unthinkingly lifts a hand to it, then drops it back to cup his teacup.]

And they are... more attuned to this "Mist" of yours?

[portolan]

[ He nods even as he stares into the distance, lips pressed tight as he forces himself to take a drink. ]

Not so different. The Archadian Empire was in lock step with our major laboratories. Their research changed drastically the last decade, though Mist usage for magick is much older. Started a war too.

[ He notices the hand drift to Sephiroth's hair and refrains from asking if its uncommon, then. Appearance can be its own delicate wound. ]

Yes. There are theories hume children could be if they were raised with it, but hume life spans are so much shorter, and our constitutions are weaker. I don't think we'd ever reach parity.