Meat n' Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see

Comments

[facepunching]

Now at least clean and clothed, Soren made his way to the Obs Deck. Surely he couldn't be the only one here. There had to be someone else from the Mercenaries. Ike, Titania, Mist -- even that opportunistic jackal, Shinon, here to rob new and better corpses of their weapons, no doubt.

Someone. Anyone.

[quick_strike]

Mon-keigh. Mon-keigh everywhere. It was like being in a horror house full of humans and not one Eldar in sight. But this guy...this guy had red eyes. Hopefully it was natural but in her dealings with humans, Alendian never once saw a human with red eyes...unless they were overtaken by one of the Dark Gods. Filled with their power.

She didn't say a word but she definitely kept a wary eye on him, prepared to take a trip to dodgeville if something happened.

[facepunching]

Soren knew this feeling. He'd become well-accustomed to it, in his years before finding Ike. The feeling of being silently scrutinized, sorted into threat or nonentity.

He turned to see a dark-haired woman. Not human -- not beorc, though she had no beastial features that he could see. But the Dragon Tribe had no such prominent tells, did they?

"Yes?" he asked. His tone was cold, businesslike.

[quick_strike]

Alend clicked her tongue in reply. She didn't really feel the urge to talk or even converse with anyone considering the situation. But she wasn't an outcast anymore so she wouldn't have an excuse to fall back on. So reply she did. Her mouth twisted in difficulty, trying to pronounce the human words that her vocal cords weren't built to pronounce, making her voice vibrate and echo awkwardly.

"Nothing, mon-keigh. I can look where I wish."

hahaha I am so sorry

[facepunching]

He didn't know what was wrong with this woman, but she was obviously having trouble speaking. Perhaps she was one of the beasts after all, then. How quaint.

"Oh? What happened to 'human'? Getting a little more imaginative with our epithets, at long last?"

Of course, he wasn't completely beorc, but she didn't need to know that.

[quick_strike]

"Use a term given to yourselves?" She couldn't help but laugh. That would be like calling her an Eldar as an insult. Which wouldn't be an insult at all.

"You would find that too much of a compliment. Yes, mon-keigh suffices just fine. What will it be from you? Xeno? Pointy-ear? What?"

[facepunching]

Soren eyed the woman with some disdain. "Yes, it is rather ill thought-out, isn't it? But then, no one ever accused your kind of having much in the way of brains."

Xeno? Pointy-ear?

"I think the term in favor is sub-human," he replied. Although technically, he wasn't supposed to call the laguz that. Ike would be appalled, he was sure.

...but she started it.

[quick_strike]

She started laughing again, not even knowing where that term came from. But the fact that he would think Eldar are dumber and lesser was funny enough as is. And he was also clearly mistaken.

"You do not even have the right person. Sub-human? I do not have anything to do with humans. I am Eldar and you would do well to remember that, human. Because it is clear that while you are human, mon-keigh you are not since you know nothing of the children of Eldanesh."

[facepunching]

"So, we've been aiming the wrong epithets at each other the entire time? Well, I must update my books -- I can't possibly expect to save all the worlds there ever were if I'm insulting someone inaccurately."

Take that as you will, pointy-ear.

[quick_strike]

"Leave it to a fool to miss the point. I'm not going to babysit you with it either."

Her hand flicked from side to side dismissively, not really caring what comes next.

[facepunching]

Soren's gaze slides past the woman and back to the rest of the crowd of strangers. If she wasn't a laguz, she was someone else's problem. "Riveting. Well, feel free to assault anyone who passes with the amazing story of the children of whatever. Excuse me."

With that, he turns back into the sea of faces, searching for only one.

[alexaddin]

Alex ran up to the dark-haired boy, who had clothes now.

"Hi!" He raised his hand, a large gold ring covered in occult symbols on the thumb. "This is Ifrit!"

"~Charmed, I'm sure.~" A voice echoes in the ear right around Alex that doesn't sound charmed at all. Then, apparently addressing Alex, "~This is your plan, now? You plan is to mill around saying Hi to people?~"

"Yep!" Alex declares.

[facepunching]

Ah, it was that young boy from before. Soren eyed the ring with some suspicion, which only increased when he heard that voice. "I don't suppose you'll heed any of my warnings about the danger of carting around mysterious magical artifacts that house a consciousness within them."

He looked to Alex, then to the ring, not sure which to address. "Ifrit, is it? Who are you, and what do you want? If you're a god of destruction threatening to destroy all life, I'd recommend you remain where you are."

Soren wasn't above fighting a god or goddess, if it meant he'd live to see Ike again.

[alexaddin]

"I can't just leave him lying around all by himself!" Alex says earnestly.

"~Oh. What useful suggestion!~" Ifrit's voice says, irony all but dripping from the air. "~Considering I'm bound to this thing and staying in it isn't any kind of a choice.~"

"I tried to talk about getting him out once, and Ifrit says that was stupid," Alex says quietly with a frown.

"~That's because it was stupid. Kid, you're not the worst master I've ever had, but you have the sense of self-preservation of a moth. You need to work on that.~"

[facepunching]

Well, he didn't sound like an all-powerful god of destruction. Soren relaxed slightly. "So he's bound to that ring... permanently? And you are his master?"

And then, to Ifrit: "What exactly are you? And what happens if you are released?"

[alexaddin]

Alex just nods a little, while Ifrit starts ranting. "~I'm a djinn, for God's sake! Spirits of scorching fire? Connected to other planes of existence? Subject of horrifically misrepresented human stories? Anything ringing a bell here? And as I told the little bleeding-heart here back then, an unbound djinn is a ridiculously dangerous thing. He could get himself incinerated if he just let me out like some kind of moron.~"