(Untitled)

[sliceitwithwind]

Xaldin is pacing - not because he's Air and can't stand being still, but rather because he's got a lot of feelings to deal with these days and can't handle being still. He is still in his coat, and gloves, and boots because the atmosphere here is still painful - but he's real.

And that's a wonderful thing.

[Tag: Xaldin]

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings, Xaldin!" Teja says, when he sees him.

Xaldin is air, as ever. He is pacing, as ever; and he very much looks like himself, still.

He only feels somewhat different, when approached, and looked upon.

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks at his friend with a new sort of curiosity, as if he was trying to discover any traces of the feline about him.

[sliceitwithwind]

"A very, very long ways away." Xaldin says blandly, "But I'm more flexible than a human of my build, and when I was young my teeth were shaper - to crack bones. My tongue has a slight roughness to it that human tongues do not, and is flatter. That's why I can't say some words correctly, such as the proper pronunciation of Lexaeus' Other's name."

Now that Lexaeus is back, he won't mangle say Aeleus. Which comes out Eleaus in his mouth - at best.

[ostro_goth]

"It is a complex diphtong that the name starts with," Teja agrees. "The Greek language, in my world had some such sounds -- the was an island, for instance, named Euboia. In dialect, though, many vowels were already drifting towards a general pronunciation as 'ee' in my time."

[sliceitwithwind]

"And the structure of my mouth simply won't allow it." Xaldin agrees without attempting the brutal other word, "Little things, but there and my species was used to them."

[ostro_goth]

"It must have been strange," Teja says, "to live in a world where there were more than one kind of speaking, feeling creature."

[sliceitwithwind]

"It must have been strange," Xaldin counters, "to live in a world where only one kind of creature spoke."

[ostro_goth]

Teja ponders this.

"Indeed," he then agrees, "you are right, looking at it thus, from the other side. Even in this place, I am used to speaking to different creatures -- dragons, cats, and the blue woman that mixes the herbs I use in my bath."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I would not exist if only one kind of person had existed on the world of my birth." Xaldin says quietly, "I count myself one of my father's species because in matters of health, growth, and appearance I am one. My mother, however, was the same species as Xigbar. The only trait of hers that I express is the colour of my eyes."

[ostro_goth]

"So the kinds of people in your world were similar enough to have offspring," he muses. "Like dogs and wolves, or horses and donkeys."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Some of them." Xaldin says dryly, "Although I was not, and am not, sterile. I couldn't have a part-human child, though. My father's species was not compatible with humans." He could get into the biological nittygritty, but doesn't bother with it.

[ostro_goth]

"And your mother's species would be compatible with either -- your father's, or the human one?" Teja asks.

That must make finding a spouse truly complicated, on such a world!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes." Xaldin says with a firm nod, "My mother could have had a half-human child, as well as me, Xigbar could have half-human children if he saw fit."

[ostro_goth]

"It must make finding a spouse, and raising a family, an interesting obstacle course, in your world," Teja says. "Upon occasion, one would assume, there would be couples that could not have offspring, one would assume; but then, two men cannot have offspring, either."

Pause, while he ponders. "Did that make things easier for couples of the same gender than they often are on one-species worlds?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Seemed so." Xaldin says with a nod, "Xigbar and I did have a strange relationship, but only because of the number of people involved in it. Kids tended to end up in families that cared for them, one way or another, and people just loved."

Until we fucked it up.

[ostro_goth]

"It must have been a lovely world to live in," Teja says, nodding.

Yes, he knows that it no longer exists.