Meditations [Open]

[on_errantry]

Rhiow sat in the middle of the main concourse of Grand Central Station, occasionally turning her head to speak into her omnicomm. She waited patiently, her tail curling slowly as she switched it, for people to arrive

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[foreseen_future]

Nura knows that the worst is yet to come concerning the Nightmare King. She knows that it will all hit the fan eventually, but she can't help but feel that all the pain she foresaw can be prevented. After all, predestination is bunk.

"Hello, Rhiow," she says as she walks up to the cat. "I am here for the meditation lesson."

[on_errantry]

"Thank you for coming," Rhiow said. "I only hope I can help a little. Do you have time to wait for others? The meditation is rather long, and I'm sure there will be some questions about the content of it." She put her whiskers forward. "Some of it is fairly idiomatic."

"But anyway, Dai stihó," go well, "Have you been aboard long?"

[foreseen_future]

Nura nods. "I can wait. I'm fairly patient." She decides that sitting down so that she can be in better eye-level with Rhiow is a proper way of conversing.

"I was recently popped."

[on_errantry]

"What a horrible time to come to the ship," Rhiow said. "Not that any time to come to the ship is really a good time." Her ears laid out to the sides for a moment, thinking of people she missed.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I got your name."

[smartnass]

Lyle is a bit late to show. He's been throwing himself into his work harder than ever, and it's only as his mind begins to tire under the strain that he stops. Catching up on the new omnicom posts sends him down here. If nothing else, the walk will stretch his legs and shake the cobwebs out of his head.

He walks into the concourse quietly, lest he disturb the person who lives there. Looking down from the entrance, Rhiow is easy to spot despite her size. She seems to still be waiting, so he takes the stairs down and approaches her.

[on_errantry]

"Dai stihó," she called, her ears swinging forward at his arrival. "Welcome to Grand Central - a little subdued, but it makes a nice meeting place. It's kind of hard to miss."

[smartnass]

"It's impressive." Lyle looks around. This sort of architecture hadn't really survived to his time. It's quite a few steps to reach her, and he gets a good idea of the space as he walks.

"I've experienced attacks similar to these before, but I'm afraid I haven't had any real training against them."

[on_errantry]

"I'm not sure how much I can offer," Rhiow said. "The mantra isn't a shield - it won't keep him out of your head if he's very determined to get there - but it's..." She switched her tail slowly. "I suppose you could call it a foundation. The first step to resisting mental intrusion is to train yourself to control the way your thoughts effect your moods."

She twitched one ear. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get technical before we were even introduced. I'm Rhiow."

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara had rushed to the Grand Central Station, although it took her a moment to find Rhiow. She was taken aback by the sheer size of the place and the frescoes that adorned it. She couldn't stop staring at everything: it reminded her a lot of the station she and the gang had stopped at before going into Ba Sing Se. She was going to have to look up this place when she had the chance.

She was surprised, however, to find no one here but a cat....was that cat the one that had put up the post? If that were so, she was going to again have to readjust her thinking about who she spoke to, and what they looked like.

"Did you put up the post?" She asked the cat.

[on_errantry]

"I did," she said. "Dai stihó, I'm Rhiow. I'm glad to see you found the place all right, this City is a big place for being contained in a ship."

If one could really call anything 'contained' on Stacy, that was. Rhiow wasn't sure how something her size even functioned - the power requirements must have been incredible. And she was a bioship... alive. How did she live? What did she eat?

Rhiow shook herself and began washing her paw, using it to scrub behind her ears. "I'm glad you've come, though. I've been getting a fairly decent response to this so far. Hopefully it will help."

[kaya_waterwave]

"Yes, I know," Katara said. "I never cease to be amazed by what I find in the city anyway. I'm glad I saw this place though. It's so beautiful."

"I hope so too," Katara said. "I've been thinking that we should do this meditation thing, but I've been getting a little distracted. Unfortunately, I had a fairly bad dream of my own...it's what brings me here today. I may have been able to break out earlier than most, but it had me fairly overwhelmed."

Katara had to ask. "I have to know: do cats talk in your world, or are you a person who turned into a cat? You can never tell in this place."

[on_errantry]

Rhiow put her whiskers forward. "Many things can talk besides ehhif," she said. "Whether or not they all speak the same language is usually what causes the communication barrier. I'm bilingual - I speak the native tongue of the People, which you mostly can't even hear, and I know the Speech, which is a sort of universal language that allows me to communicate with anything living."

And a great deal of things that aren't living, but that's the wizardry.

[riseupnchargem]

Jamie made his way through the city and into the station in something of a daze, half-expecting at any moment to feel that presence in his mind once again, as he had intermittently the past few days. He was somewhat surprised, upon reaching his destination, to find the vast area empty save for a cat.

He paused, wondering if it was just a random stray cat, or if it was the person he was supposed to be meeting here. He supposed a talking cat wasn't that much of a stretch, considering all the other beings aboard the ship - for that matter, there'd been a talking cat back on the island, too, hadn't there?

Jamie approached the cat tentatively. "Um...hi. Were you the one that sent out that message, or, um..." He trailed off, gesturing vaguely and thinking that, regardless of whether or not the cat could understand him, he probably sounded really stupid right now.

[on_errantry]

"Yes, I am," she said, pricking her ears forward as the boy approached. She had seen some of the younger denizens of the ship around, of course, but she hadn't met many of them. There were young wizards, of course, so she was used to the peculiar sinking feeling in her chest that this boy was too young to be here.

She shook her head, dismissing the notion. "I'm Rhiow. Welcome to Grand Central Station."

[riseupnchargem]

Jamie smiled faintly, glad that he'd found the person he was looking for. "'m Jamie Hemeros. Nice to meet you."

He seated himself cross-legged on the floor of the concourse, trying to sit up straight despite the temptation to give in to an exhausted slump, and gestured to the station. "Um. Nice place you've got here," he attempted with a lame grin. "Anyone else live here, or d'you have the whole thing to yourself?"

[on_errantry]

"No, I'm the only one who lives here," Rhiow said, a distinct note of regret in her voice. "On my world it was always busy - the busiest commuter center in New York." And now it's nothing but an empty building.

She shook herself to cover the fact that her fur almost stood on end at the thought. Empty it may be, she told herself, but not forever. I am on errantry here, and my errantry will see to it that my world, and other worlds, are restored from this disaster.

[notadamndemon]

It took a little bit to FIND Grand Central Station in the City. Not that he would have had much better luck finding it in New York, but at least there he could ask for directions. Still, Sam did find it and entered, looking around as he descended into the large vaulted room. When he spotted Rhiow, he raised a hand and grinned. "Been keeping busy, I see."

[on_errantry]

"Ssam!" Rhiow said, a genuine note of happiness in her voice. She liked the tall ehhif - she and her were kindred spirits, of a kind. "As busy as I can be, of course, and the best solution to this kind of attack, too."

She scratched at her plant collar a moment. "I've met your brother," she said, a small amused note creeping into her voice.

[notadamndemon]

Sam sat down, crossing his legs once he was close to Rhiow. It made talking easier for them both, since it put them more on a level with each other. "That's very true. I've spent a lot of time in the Sensoriums doing research." He looked faintly embarrassed. "I suppose it's nothing I couldn't do in the Media Library or on my omnicomm, but I prefer the feel of books." And if he made the Sensorium look like Bobby's library? Well, nobody could really blame him, right?

The rest of it got a raised eyebrow and a fond, if slightly exasperated grin. "Really? Should I be apologizing for him?"

[on_errantry]

"Oh, he was remarkably well-behaved once we got through the 'holy crap talking cat' phase," Rhiow said, putting her whiskers forward even more. "But he..." she put her ears back a little. "Nevermind. Far be it for me to tell another had to deal with their family." She shook her head rapidly until her ears flapped against the sides of her head, settling the collar back into place.

"Research is the very thing for keeping your mind off of what is bothering you," she said instead. "Although I never could really get the hang of written English - I can't make sense of much of it without scent."