01 ~ video

[darkwingsofkilvas]

[The video shows Naesala casually lounging against the side of a stone building, in his usual dark outfit. It's a wide enough shot to show his wings resting against the wall behind him; he seems to be holding his yimo out at arm's length while he's recording.]

Well then. It's a festival dedicated to tying knots. Makes you wonder what form of the festivities happens in private, doesn't it?

Don't bother scolding me for saying it. I know that's been the question on everyone's mind.

At any rate, I met a most interesting group of people at one of the bars here. They invited me to a Erol'an poetry reading at a place near the docks. I don't know what to expect from it, but it ought to make for an interesting night.

[Naesala seems pretty satisfied with the turn of events, too. Look at him, making friends with hipsters.]

If only all my interactions with the locals were like that. Do yourselves a favor and don't walk close to the colleges if you have any extra appendages. You might not escape with all your feathers intact.

Comments

[darkwingsofkilvas]

I was stopped by a couple of the students, who kept asking me about how my wings worked and how I could fly with them. I tried explaining that it wasn't magic and wasn't physically impossible, but I doubt any of them listened. Before I knew it, there was a crowd, and extracting myself from that was quite the chore.

One of them even wanted me to come in so their professors could poke and prod at me. What gall! I'd rather tug on a lion's tail and wait for the sweet embrace of death.

[Yeah, he's still pretty annoyed about it.]

[driverslicense]

[...Would someone really wish for death to escape an annoyance?]

[...Chase's confusion aside.]

Because of your wings...? [From Chase's point of view, some of the races of Aifaran are much odder. But he supposed that goes the other way around, too.]

I wouldn't fit in with them at all. You are unhurt?

[darkwingsofkilvas]

Yes, well, it seems that the race with wings here glide rather than fly. It's unusual enough that they found it remarkable.

I'm not hurt, no. It was just an inconvenience.

[driverslicense]

How delicate are they? Your wings. [He was cautious of them when they'd first met, simply because he hadn't known. If Naesala can fly with them, they're probably not that frail, but who knows. Roidmude, the species other than humans that he's most familiar with, are contradictory existences.]

[(He is also only proving Naesala's conjecture about getting along with those people at the college, but he hasn't realized it for himself yet.)]

[darkwingsofkilvas]

[Well, it's an honest question, and he doesn't expect Chase to use the information to bad ends.]

Hmm. Moderately so, I'd say. It takes building up quite a bit of muscle to not fly like an awkward fledgling, but while our bones are strong, it's a real pain to get one broken. If your healer isn't skilled, or if you jostle the bone too much, it might grow back wrong and ruin your wing forever.

[driverslicense]

Then...they are not so fragile.

They must have been extremely annoying. [The people at the college, that is.]

What were you doing there?

[darkwingsofkilvas]

I was only walking by the place. Sometimes I see interesting buildings from the air that I like to take a look at from the ground as well.

At any rate, I'll be avoiding it in the future. I'd rather not get hassled like that again.

[driverslicense]

That seems to be a wise decision. [It's probably barely noticeable, but there's a bit of amusement in his voice.]

...You could wear a disguise if you want to fly.

[darkwingsofkilvas]

[Naesala almost, almost starts laughing at the idea.]

And how exactly would a disguise help me? If I'm the only person in this city with raven's wings, I'm instantly recognizable. It doesn't matter if I'm putting a mask on my face or not.

[driverslicense]

Land, and then hide them. There are coats big enough.

[And if not, there's always putting on a robot suit pretending a hunched back...or even pretending to be a different race entirely.]

You are not too prideful for that?

[darkwingsofkilvas]

[Yep, he's definitely snickering now.]

No, I'm not. I did something similar before, though it wasn't easy to pull off. I just can't believe you're encouraging me to do it. I'll keep it under consideration, how about that?

[driverslicense]

Why would I not encourage someone to do it? [It makes it easy for Naesala, and it doesn't harm anybody, after all.]

Overzealousness isn't good, either. [He got chased around for a bit by an evangelist, himself; the memory of how annoying that was is still sitting at the front of his mind.] A disguise is good if you cannot harm them.

[darkwingsofkilvas]

It's just a suspicious thing for someone to do. No one wears a disguise unless they have something to hide.

... Which, I suppose I would have something to hide, in that case.

[driverslicense]

Some people use a disguise to fit in.

[Chase, for instance—his appearance was copied from a human.]

A good disguise doesn't look suspicious. [He tilts his head.] Can you shapeshift? [A reach, maybe, but Chase has three forms, not including his human one, that he can cycle through. He's done it once as part of an operation, in fact.]

[darkwingsofkilvas]

I can shapeshift, but that's not going to look less suspicious. I turn into a raven. A raven about as tall as I stand in this form, to be specific.

[driverslicense]

They won't know it's you to hound you. [At the most, they could ask Naesala if he was related to that big raven they saw, probably.]

[...But that probably won't solve the main issue, it's true.]

You are content with staying away from there?

[darkwingsofkilvas]

Yes, true enough, but it's quite attention-getting all on its own.

At any rate, I am happy to avoid the place. You have nothing to worry about.