Christmas Party
Randomly generated character pairs.
Let's see what we get.
PS: If you keep up with this sort of thing, you'll probably notice some really glaring name changes. Sorry for any confusion it causes.
#43 and #45
Sonnet and Rinatya, Senda Jackson
The humans did so prefer to call themselves magicless. It was something of a rarity in the world, a title reserved for only a handful of species. Homo sapiens sapiens not among them.
Little surprised Senda, not after so long alive. But, without the gift of her sight, torn away by some unknown shift in the fabrics of existence, the sensation of shock had begun making something of a comeback. It made a certain degree of sense, though. As there was some semblance, sliding like pus through their veins, of dilute and stagnant, untrained magic in the bodies of mankind, there would, ostensibly, be a handful who sought to master it and turn a profit.
It would be nice to see the old, familiar skills again, even if they were infantile in execution; one could hardly expect more from an untrained human prophet.
And, perhaps she would find some strength here, in a foreign and familiar place, to continue her blind search. There were just so... so many of them. Billions upon billions. Swarms and great piles of human flesh wriggling and writhing everywhere. The exhaustion of two years seeking some half-forgotten goal had stretched her fortitude thin, and every day maintaining a truly human glamor ground her further into a paste.
"Welcome to our humble home, dear customer," chimed a woman. Or two women. Their synchronicity was terrifying. If she hadn't caught both pairs of lips moving, Senda would not have believe two people had spoken. "How may we assist you, today?"
Of course, it must have been magic. No one was so intricately bound without it. Only barely trained in anything other than foresight, though, she was unable to pinpoint the exact variety and intensity of the work. Nonetheless, it was better than she'd expected.
"I would say that you've helped me simply by existing. But, I think I'd be better off asking you to explain what services you offer."
As one, the women's eyebrows cocked lopsidedly. They were perfect copies of eachother, down to the most minute detail. Clones perhaps. "We offer the chance to use our sight. To find things that are lost, as you need." They spoke together, then the one on the left continued by herself. "We wonder why you look like that, foreigner." The righthand women then added, "And by that, we do not mean human from another land."
Senda blinked blearily. This was rather more impressive. She had been able to see past even the heaviest glamor since her troubled birth. But, the sprite also knew that was far from normal. Most people took years, or even decades, of training to slice through glamor with only their eyes. They didn't seem concerned with the presence of a trespasser on their world, though.
Just confused.
"Tell me your names, and I will take away the mask." The Unselei replied.
"Faeskin." The women concluded almost immediately, and Senda fliched. "But, we can't imagine that one so far from home poses much threat of enslavement. We are Sonnet and Rinatya."
"Your imaginations must be awfully weak then." Senda sniped, but her annoyance was short lived. In an instant, her glamor was gone. Suddenly, she was much slighter than the pair- nordic giants by their pale and bulky looks. And shorter. Much less threatening that the chestnut skinned, heavily made up and dangerously muscular form she'd been taking on lately.
"They are amazing." The pair murmured, staring passively over her shoulders. Surrounded all her life by such biological oddities as Lismore's soul-harvested false wings and the king's overly modified body, Senda had rarely been commented upon for her physical traits. But, without her talents to rely on any longer, it was nice to know that she still had something worthy of note. "What breed are you?"
"Unselei."
"Oh yes, we gathered that from the audacity. The Seleigh always get their proper visa and stick to the markets like they're supposed to do."
"A sprite then."
"Well, sprite." The pair said, simultaneously crossing their arms. "How will you pay us, to find your long lost love. It's a big world after all. Very valuable information, I'd wager."
The casual mention of her unspoken goal was a marketing technique that Senda herself had used frequently enough in her time. People tended to doubt your abilities if you didn't prove them in instants.
"And that's all you do, then? Find? No predictions?" The pair smiled placidly.
"Oh, you ought to know. Humanfolk don't have enough magic to do real predictions. Just find patterns. We'll tell you were she is now, at this moment. But, where she'll be in a week, who can say?"
These women seemed so safe, so easy to trust, it was hardly any surprise that Senda's lips moved without her bidding. "I could." Unselei did not blush like humans. Instead, they went cold and still. No heat or fidgetry, just a sudden pallor and a frozen inability to react.
"We had wondered where the fabled Seer ran away to. But, we see no sight in you. And yet, its scars tear at your soul. What have you done, to condemn yourself to being blinded?"
Senda growled, an action that would have looked far more appropriate on a street hardened human that on a frail little sprite wearing a gown so ancient and tattered it might not have bothered existing at all. "I will pay you with a warning straight from the tongue of the strongest seer that was or will be. Mightier than the neutered Djinn children who never age. More powerful than the light hearted Rani advisors. And sharper than you two will ever be."
As one, the pair of woman took a single step back. As if, for some reason, they were somehow frightened by her.
"So be it." Said one. "Your woman is named Samantha Tera Bedingfield." Continued the other. "And at this moment, she rests, asleep, in a bed twenty six thousand and fourteen miles east of here. In a naval installation on the coast of New Barren."
Senda smiled, and in half a heartbeat, was once again an imposing male. "Never make a friend of a god, is my offer to you. Because when, one day, their status changes and they too become mere mortals, every gift they ever granted will leave you. Even ones they gave before they ever existed."
#26 and #47
Kira-Kara-Ni and Uleille a'Riona
Uleille did not like this place. The water was warm and stagnant, even in the sea. And there was so little sea. These were a river people, and rivers were as much her home as the sky was to an earthworm.
But, there was business to be done. Even if her dear friend would never remember the promises made, so many summers ago, she had called upon the contract. There was battle to fulfill, and since nigh none of it would come to see, she would have to go to land.
In the city, it only took a day of mindless nonsense for them to come to her. It was more a matter of practicality, she imagined, than Elatha's grace that they did not bring the heavily pregnant Centenaria.
They knocked at her door, so politely, these two sisters. Once upon a time, they had probably been wonderfully kind young women. But now, hardened by years of fighting and unseen battle, only a shell of kindness remained. They would knock on her door, certainly.
But when she did not open it, they would force their way in.
And they did. Quietly, of course. Picking the simplistic lock with ease.
"If you want to stay hidden, it helps to not use someone else's credit cards." The older one announced, her inky black hair tied in a tight, businesslike bun.
"Particularly, it helps to not use a card that belongs to one of us."
Uleile smiled lightly. "I do apologize. I'm not quite as familiar with human customs as I ought to be. I had assumed that my standing bargain with your partner was still in effect. Was I incorrect?" Of course, even spending eleven months of the year underwater, Uleille knew the customs of humanity. It was one of her favorite things to do, studying humankind. But the lie served to confuse the elder and infuriate the younger, which was entirely the point.
"What bargain?" Akira asked, eyes trained on Uleille's chest. Kara-ni's nasty metal gun was already out, though her finger remained outside the tigger gaurd. Akira's was tucked away behind her jacket, the handle occasionally visible. No doubt, if the answer wasn't to Akira's liking the women would shoot first, and fight for the answers from Cen later.
"Oh just kill her, will you?"
"I knew Centenaria when she was young. Very young. Barely an adult, by the standards of the day. Certainly not one in today's world. As i had paid for our meal that day, she said the 'next time' would be 'on her'. Obviously, I was wrong to think she would uphold her promise." Akira considered the words, while Kara-ni grunted quietly.
"What's your project line?" the younger one asked, when it seemed that her half-sister wasn't going to.
"I haven't got one. I am not one of your silly, half-human creatures. I am rather beyond that."
The younger of the pair groaned heavily. "She's one of them god complexes, then. Can't we just be done with her?"
Akira's cold face snapped into a cutting glare, and for a moment her eyes flicked from Uleille to Kara-ni. "We do not just kill things. You know that."
"Yes, but look at what she's been doing. You don't just simultaeneously cause every sink, bath and toilet in Mumbai to erupt- in salt water no less- for the fun of it."
"Oh, I do. You see, water obeys me. The very waves of the sea fall before my command, for my people overthrew Mannanan long ago and claimed the tides and the ocean as our own." The sudden pompousness of her voice had Akira swiftly drawing her ill hidden gun as well. "And, once upon a time, I promised the power to Centenaria Trelix in exchange for breakfast, lunch and bus fare. She isn't able to call upon me now, that poor sweet girl, but I shall make sure that she and her son are well protected. A task you are obviously ill prepared for. That is the only gift I can give her, now."
Let's see what we get.
PS: If you keep up with this sort of thing, you'll probably notice some really glaring name changes. Sorry for any confusion it causes.
#43 and #45
Sonnet and Rinatya, Senda Jackson
The humans did so prefer to call themselves magicless. It was something of a rarity in the world, a title reserved for only a handful of species. Homo sapiens sapiens not among them.
Little surprised Senda, not after so long alive. But, without the gift of her sight, torn away by some unknown shift in the fabrics of existence, the sensation of shock had begun making something of a comeback. It made a certain degree of sense, though. As there was some semblance, sliding like pus through their veins, of dilute and stagnant, untrained magic in the bodies of mankind, there would, ostensibly, be a handful who sought to master it and turn a profit.
It would be nice to see the old, familiar skills again, even if they were infantile in execution; one could hardly expect more from an untrained human prophet.
And, perhaps she would find some strength here, in a foreign and familiar place, to continue her blind search. There were just so... so many of them. Billions upon billions. Swarms and great piles of human flesh wriggling and writhing everywhere. The exhaustion of two years seeking some half-forgotten goal had stretched her fortitude thin, and every day maintaining a truly human glamor ground her further into a paste.
"Welcome to our humble home, dear customer," chimed a woman. Or two women. Their synchronicity was terrifying. If she hadn't caught both pairs of lips moving, Senda would not have believe two people had spoken. "How may we assist you, today?"
Of course, it must have been magic. No one was so intricately bound without it. Only barely trained in anything other than foresight, though, she was unable to pinpoint the exact variety and intensity of the work. Nonetheless, it was better than she'd expected.
"I would say that you've helped me simply by existing. But, I think I'd be better off asking you to explain what services you offer."
As one, the women's eyebrows cocked lopsidedly. They were perfect copies of eachother, down to the most minute detail. Clones perhaps. "We offer the chance to use our sight. To find things that are lost, as you need." They spoke together, then the one on the left continued by herself. "We wonder why you look like that, foreigner." The righthand women then added, "And by that, we do not mean human from another land."
Senda blinked blearily. This was rather more impressive. She had been able to see past even the heaviest glamor since her troubled birth. But, the sprite also knew that was far from normal. Most people took years, or even decades, of training to slice through glamor with only their eyes. They didn't seem concerned with the presence of a trespasser on their world, though.
Just confused.
"Tell me your names, and I will take away the mask." The Unselei replied.
"Faeskin." The women concluded almost immediately, and Senda fliched. "But, we can't imagine that one so far from home poses much threat of enslavement. We are Sonnet and Rinatya."
"Your imaginations must be awfully weak then." Senda sniped, but her annoyance was short lived. In an instant, her glamor was gone. Suddenly, she was much slighter than the pair- nordic giants by their pale and bulky looks. And shorter. Much less threatening that the chestnut skinned, heavily made up and dangerously muscular form she'd been taking on lately.
"They are amazing." The pair murmured, staring passively over her shoulders. Surrounded all her life by such biological oddities as Lismore's soul-harvested false wings and the king's overly modified body, Senda had rarely been commented upon for her physical traits. But, without her talents to rely on any longer, it was nice to know that she still had something worthy of note. "What breed are you?"
"Unselei."
"Oh yes, we gathered that from the audacity. The Seleigh always get their proper visa and stick to the markets like they're supposed to do."
"A sprite then."
"Well, sprite." The pair said, simultaneously crossing their arms. "How will you pay us, to find your long lost love. It's a big world after all. Very valuable information, I'd wager."
The casual mention of her unspoken goal was a marketing technique that Senda herself had used frequently enough in her time. People tended to doubt your abilities if you didn't prove them in instants.
"And that's all you do, then? Find? No predictions?" The pair smiled placidly.
"Oh, you ought to know. Humanfolk don't have enough magic to do real predictions. Just find patterns. We'll tell you were she is now, at this moment. But, where she'll be in a week, who can say?"
These women seemed so safe, so easy to trust, it was hardly any surprise that Senda's lips moved without her bidding. "I could." Unselei did not blush like humans. Instead, they went cold and still. No heat or fidgetry, just a sudden pallor and a frozen inability to react.
"We had wondered where the fabled Seer ran away to. But, we see no sight in you. And yet, its scars tear at your soul. What have you done, to condemn yourself to being blinded?"
Senda growled, an action that would have looked far more appropriate on a street hardened human that on a frail little sprite wearing a gown so ancient and tattered it might not have bothered existing at all. "I will pay you with a warning straight from the tongue of the strongest seer that was or will be. Mightier than the neutered Djinn children who never age. More powerful than the light hearted Rani advisors. And sharper than you two will ever be."
As one, the pair of woman took a single step back. As if, for some reason, they were somehow frightened by her.
"So be it." Said one. "Your woman is named Samantha Tera Bedingfield." Continued the other. "And at this moment, she rests, asleep, in a bed twenty six thousand and fourteen miles east of here. In a naval installation on the coast of New Barren."
Senda smiled, and in half a heartbeat, was once again an imposing male. "Never make a friend of a god, is my offer to you. Because when, one day, their status changes and they too become mere mortals, every gift they ever granted will leave you. Even ones they gave before they ever existed."
#26 and #47
Kira-Kara-Ni and Uleille a'Riona
Uleille did not like this place. The water was warm and stagnant, even in the sea. And there was so little sea. These were a river people, and rivers were as much her home as the sky was to an earthworm.
But, there was business to be done. Even if her dear friend would never remember the promises made, so many summers ago, she had called upon the contract. There was battle to fulfill, and since nigh none of it would come to see, she would have to go to land.
In the city, it only took a day of mindless nonsense for them to come to her. It was more a matter of practicality, she imagined, than Elatha's grace that they did not bring the heavily pregnant Centenaria.
They knocked at her door, so politely, these two sisters. Once upon a time, they had probably been wonderfully kind young women. But now, hardened by years of fighting and unseen battle, only a shell of kindness remained. They would knock on her door, certainly.
But when she did not open it, they would force their way in.
And they did. Quietly, of course. Picking the simplistic lock with ease.
"If you want to stay hidden, it helps to not use someone else's credit cards." The older one announced, her inky black hair tied in a tight, businesslike bun.
"Particularly, it helps to not use a card that belongs to one of us."
Uleile smiled lightly. "I do apologize. I'm not quite as familiar with human customs as I ought to be. I had assumed that my standing bargain with your partner was still in effect. Was I incorrect?" Of course, even spending eleven months of the year underwater, Uleille knew the customs of humanity. It was one of her favorite things to do, studying humankind. But the lie served to confuse the elder and infuriate the younger, which was entirely the point.
"What bargain?" Akira asked, eyes trained on Uleille's chest. Kara-ni's nasty metal gun was already out, though her finger remained outside the tigger gaurd. Akira's was tucked away behind her jacket, the handle occasionally visible. No doubt, if the answer wasn't to Akira's liking the women would shoot first, and fight for the answers from Cen later.
"Oh just kill her, will you?"
"I knew Centenaria when she was young. Very young. Barely an adult, by the standards of the day. Certainly not one in today's world. As i had paid for our meal that day, she said the 'next time' would be 'on her'. Obviously, I was wrong to think she would uphold her promise." Akira considered the words, while Kara-ni grunted quietly.
"What's your project line?" the younger one asked, when it seemed that her half-sister wasn't going to.
"I haven't got one. I am not one of your silly, half-human creatures. I am rather beyond that."
The younger of the pair groaned heavily. "She's one of them god complexes, then. Can't we just be done with her?"
Akira's cold face snapped into a cutting glare, and for a moment her eyes flicked from Uleille to Kara-ni. "We do not just kill things. You know that."
"Yes, but look at what she's been doing. You don't just simultaeneously cause every sink, bath and toilet in Mumbai to erupt- in salt water no less- for the fun of it."
"Oh, I do. You see, water obeys me. The very waves of the sea fall before my command, for my people overthrew Mannanan long ago and claimed the tides and the ocean as our own." The sudden pompousness of her voice had Akira swiftly drawing her ill hidden gun as well. "And, once upon a time, I promised the power to Centenaria Trelix in exchange for breakfast, lunch and bus fare. She isn't able to call upon me now, that poor sweet girl, but I shall make sure that she and her son are well protected. A task you are obviously ill prepared for. That is the only gift I can give her, now."