Eyes still squinted, Frédo chews on the fact that his friend knows he just cannot leave a challenge alone. And her abusing it. He hated cold. "You are bullying me into this." He murmured. "I have nothing to prove, I have done skiing before, out of necessity..." His mouth worked again. He detested the cold. Hated it with passion, him being somebody who had grown up on the southern side of a mountain range in a pleasantly warm climate. "If I do it, what's in it for me, hm?"

Wow, digging into her fear of water, that's low. But he's not wrong. "Alright, you don't want to go voluntarily? Would it help if I dared you? I think they have a colour system, I think black is the easiest one. I dare you to go down that one at least once!"

His eyes squinted in suspicioun as Nissa mentioned the hot tubs and sauna's, as if he attempted to gauge wether she was speaking the truth or just trying to lure him jnto coming. "Obviamente, sure I am dextrous enough to ski, but there will be *snow!*" he exclaimed, his voice rising as if he was mortified. "Just because *you*..." he vigurously stabbed his finger in the air towards Nissa, "are capable of touching water, doesn't mean you have to go and do it! *voluntarily!*"

"I know, I know, you're a big baby when it comes to the cold. But I think they have sauna's and hot tubs, I know you like hot tubs!" She points teasingly at him when she mentions hot tubs. It's been a ritual of his to go to a bathhouse for a day and soak in the hot water whenever they got to a big city. 'Washing away the dirt on of the road' or so he says. Nissa doesn't understand why a simple prestidigitation isn't enough. "Look, it'll be fun! I know you're dexterous enough to go skiing, and this is a magic school, they're bound to have clothes that'll *actually keep you warm. Right? That just makes sense."

his face went blank at the mention of going on a winter sports trip. "Skiing..." he said, his voice flat and incredulous.

Perhaps they were only supposed to in each other's lives for a short time. Considering their difference in lifespan they would be. But really, Nissa would rather think about that as little as she could. "Well, I always did mean to get back, you know.. After. When it's safe to, so we could go adventuring together again. I still need to come meet your mother, and see the Inn. But I guess we're together again now anyway. I will tell you, university life is a lot more boring compared to adventuring. Oh! That reminds me, they have these outings, activities and stuff? And they're organising a ski trip. It'll be cold, but will probably be fun? Something to keep busy and stuff. You should totally come!" It's supposed to be for students and staff, but who cares. Nissa certainly doesn't.

He almost startled at the hug, but there was no hesitation as he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame and closed his eyes. He smiled through the lump in his throat. "I know you didn't want to go, *hermanita*. You did what had to be done," he held her for a good, solid while before he released her with one arm to stroke through her short, dark, slightly unruly hair, his eyes searching hers. "It is just how things are, *no*? All of us, we are passers-by in each other's life, for a long time or a brief time. Some just... leave more of a mark than others." He grinned playfully as he tapped Nissa's nose. "Consider yourself flattered. I don't usually need three weeks of self-medication to get over somebody leaving!" His tone was light-hearted, the fondness behind his dark-edged joke sincere. He was not one to dwell much on pains from the past. "I fixed myself up and now am allright. And very happy to have you have you to bother my ass again!"

As fascinating as Ava talking is, an upset Frédo is infinitely more important. But it's better to stay respectful. "Ava, I'm going to have to set you down for a moment." She gently places Ava on the bed, then sits up on her knees to wrap her arms around Frédo's neck. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry I had to go, that you ended up alone again.. I didn't think about what would happen if I left." She couldn't have stayed, not really. She needed a fix for her magic, and that oath let her here

1

Yltrin

yltrin

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Her voice now changed significantly, it lowered several octaves into an almost motherly, sweet tone, her gently thrumming wooden frame now reminiscent of an embrace in cold, dark nights. "His heart cried out his lonelyness. I couldn't just leave him like this..." It was almost af his her magical, musical being reached out a hand to gently stroke his hair.

Frédo shrugged. "I have not a clue. And she just... well..." he sighed as his shoulders fell a bit, regret mixed with a hint of shame upon his face. "I have a theory. After you left. And Ian stayed with his family, of course. And then Nita wouldn't join. I was alone and I was ah..." he took a short pause, as if looking for words that he actually already knew, but didn't seem to want to say. "Well... I was not... I became a bit of a mess, suffice it to say. I felt like shit. And one night I was absolutely, stupidly, ridiculously drunk and sad and... there she was!" He shrugged again. "I didn't do anything, I didn't summon her, she just... started talking to me. Very kindly. And she won't tell me where she came from, she is just...Ava."

"If you have questions about me. I am the one with whom you should be!" The feminine voice rose and fell as if in song, but not only did she sing into Nissa's mind, it was almost as if the voice circled around her head. Dolby Surround System style. Ava kept a light-hearted and cheerful melody, her tone still tingled with a hint of a tease.

Nissa smiles apprehensively when Frédo hands Ava to her. It's not like she hasn't held Ava before, she just has no idea what could possibly require them to need to get reacquainted? He'd never actually change anything about her. Her eyes go wide with surprise when a voice suddenly pops in her head. Her jaw drops as her eyes glance around while she listens to the voice. "You can talk?" She says out loud before adressing Frédo. "She can talk now? How did you do that?"

@Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

As Nissa' hand touched the polished wood of Ava’s body, a warmth spread through her fingers. The wood thrummed gently beneath her hand, a vibration not of strings, but presence. A sensation that was not just physical, but deeper, like an echo of an old melody from a dream, or the memory of a loved one’s soft humming. A feminine, lilting voice spoke in Nissa’s mind, as if somebody was whispering in her ear. “At last we meet, Nissa dear, after all the tales so full of cheer! Frédo's missed your tricks, his fondess true! Don’t tell him that I told you…” Even though there was no face to Ava’s personality, her smile and mischievous wink could be felt, cheerful and knowing. The best it could be described as, was a tingling sensation, like a light breeze that tickled the skin of fingers, then hand, then arm, all the way up to reach the heart.

“Yes! Actually…” The icy shimmer in his eyes and skin dissipated immediately at Nissa’s mention of Ava, making way for an excited grin and sparkle. “You two need to be reintroduced!” he reached back and picked the gorgeously decorated lute from her personal nook on the wall and handed her to Nissa as if handing over a delicate treasure.

Nissa smiles, imagining the ranch Ian had talked about. It's good, to know that he's happy, and reunited with his family, even if Nissa hadn't gotten the opportunity to meet them. Hopefully some day she can. She recognises the swift change in Frédo's colouring for the sadness that causes it. It must have been hard for him, after all the time he's spent learning to make emotional connections with friends again, to just be left on his own again. She follows his lead, since it seems like he doesn't want to talk about it more than he has. "Definitely! I can imaging she'd need some time to figure out what she wants after having had her mind controlled for so long. That must take some time to get used to. So did you just go out on your own? You and Ava against the world?"

1

Yltrin

yltrin

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He shrugged. It wasn't even all of it. "Well, the whole Gideon-endeavour only took a couple of days. It was actually the journey to Rheine and then an airship to Ka that took several months. But we managed to find Ian's family. I stayed with them for a little while, they wanted to find a place to start that ranch Ian was always on about." Frédo smiled sadly remembering those couple of days and the following goodbye. "But, you know... At some point you realise your presence is more of an intrusion than anything else. None of them ever mentioned it, but..." he shrugged, his voice fading a little. A small shiver of icy white speckles passed the dark brown irises in his eyes and for but a second, his skin paled slightly. It wasn't enough for him to fully shift into his wintery mood though. He perked back up, a showman's smile on his face as his eyes found Nissa's again. "So, I left. Paid a lot of money to teleport back to Atlas again, talked more to Nita and tried to convince her to join me, sì, like the good old days." He sighed deeply, although the sadness wasn't as deep here. "She said she needed more time to figure out what she wanted. Justifiably so, *no*?"

Nissa breathes a sigh of relief knowing her friend is back home, safe. He'd always been more of a homebody than she was, he'd be happy to be back. Nita must be more powerful than Nissa had even thought because she's never heard of that spell.. She wonders if she can figure it out. "Wow.. I'm impressed, though I can't really blame her. That's quite a lot you've accomplished in the past couple of months!"

"Oh yes, Hanar is allright," Frédo immediately responded, knowing how much he meant to Nissa. "Actually, when we got there, the clerics in Rheine had already fixed him up and sent him on his way back to Melis with Warryn. I sent them a sending and they had apparently arrived safely." He dismissed the illusion of his former teacher before jumping back in time in his story. "We didn't kill Gideon. We actually never even got the chance. I am not sure what she did, but Nita reduced his brain capacity to that of an earthworm, I think. She wanted to have her way with him for a bit before handing him over to trusted authorities. Heh...." The look in his face spoke numbers: he was happy not to have been in that particular situation.

Hanar, Nissa's best friend growing up, who'd somehow gotten himself involved with a cursed bracelet. Unbeknownst to Frédo, she'd paid a lot of money out of her own pocket for the temple in Rheine to procure a scroll. Thoughts about him had been pushed to the background with everything that was happening here. "Did you see Hanar? Is he okay now?" The worry on her face melts a little when she watches the illusion of Frédo's teacher flinging spells. She's sorry to have missed it, from Frédo's stories it had been clear that she was more powerful than their group had been. "That must have been quite something to see! And it must have felt good to put a stop to all of Gideon's evil planning!"

*Sì*! We managed to convince a cleric in Atlas City to make us a scroll of Remove Curse. We had one made for Hanar as well, just to be sure, sì, because we were going to Rheine anyway. This cleric..." Frédo frowned slightly," I forgot her name... but she was also from the same church as Erick was. Mishakal. Anyway, in exchange for help clearing out some posessed statues in her church, she made us the scrolls." He left out the sex, for the sake of Nissa's sanity. She had never cared about any of his escapades anyway, unless it had actually peovided an opporunity to tease him, and an extended conversation about flirting was probably just about enough for her to handle. "So, then we went for Nita's and set her free with one of the scrolls. Gideon was not amused and he did try to come after us, but we had expected him and well..." a smirk spread across his lips as he remembered. "Let's say Nita wasn't amused either." She had been, an absolute tempest as Gideon had appeared. Frédo reached back towards Ava and plucked a minor illusion from her strings, portraying a beautiful, elven woman with dark hair, looking furious and throwing spells at an unseen target.

It's a quick summary, the travel across half the continent reduced to a couple of sentences. It's something she hadn't thought about when she left. How she'd left them in a strange city, half a world away from where they needed to be to finish their last quest together. "So Nita is free now? That's great news!" Frédo's teacher had been reduced to nothing more than a trophy, stuck in a mansion and magically compelled to feel absolutely no impulse to leave. "Did he follow you? Did he realise you two did it?"

Taking his cue as she laughingly dismissed his words, Frédo leaned back and wrapped his shoulders in a second blanket. The warmth didn't seep up the woode floorboards very quickly, it seemed, and nightfall in winter underneath an unisolated roof didn't improve the temperature at all. "Well. I am alive..." He joked. "Okay, so first of all: yes. Ian got back to Trix and Lia. It was really quite the journey, sabes, because after you left we had no way to teleport. So, first we spend another couple of weeks in Culdor, to try and find something that might have helped you and maybe send it to you somehow, but we received a message from Athian that he had found Ian's family and they needed help, *vale*..." He breathed in deeply. "So we travelled all the way back to Rheine on foot, which took us months to do. But then, while on the road, we figured: might as well get Nita out of her spell and just deal with the whole Gideon-situación you know, while we are at it." Again, his speech was accentuated by his hands moving about in waves, or sharp, crisp gestures. "You can imagine he was not very pleased, *comprende*..."

"Alright, alright, alright. I get it. I started a game, and if I don't like to continue playing, I need to be kind and gentle when I tell him. In the mean time, it's a game and I should enjoy it. I get it" She flaps a hand dismissively, but there's a big appreciative smile on her face. She might still not have any idea on how to actually go about going for waffles, but she'd like to talk about something else now. It's unlikely she can absorb any more of this anyway. "Can you tell me about how you've been doing now?"

1

Yltrin

yltrin

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"Either way the game has already started. you wanted my opinion, *sì*... The fun is about enjoying the unpredictability of the game, trying something new not really knowing what the outcome will be, the excitement of finding out where your next roll of the dice will take you. There is nothing to lose, really. So just try to enjoy it." Despite his young age for a half-elf, tiny hair-thin lines wrinkled at the corner of his eyes as he smiled - genuinely - and winked at his little, lost chosen-sister. He gently brushed her cheek with his forefinger. "You'll be fine."

"Well.. Actually I suggested it.." Did she unintentionally throw a die? "And then he accepted with the comment that he'd like to continue talking to me.. So I guess I kind of started the game, and then dropped the die when he threw it back to me.."

He shrugged. "Well, he threw you a die to invite you for the game then," Frédo said matter-of-factly. "And you went: okay, yeah sure, let's play! So just avoiding him now would be rude." His tone was dead serious, but his eyes glinted with badly-hidden amusement and malicious joy.

"Uh, yeah.. As a thank you for being cool and letting us pull the prank."

"No no no no, hold on..." He said, wagging a finger as he was not about to just let her slip out of this. "You already agreed to go for this thing with him, *no*? Waffles?"

Kind but clear.. Perhaps she's gotten a little to used to getting away with things because most people think she looks cute. Especially for long-legged people she seem to keep that cuteness factor like people have for small children. Nissa is not opposed to using that to her favour. But perhaps that isn't enough in this context. "Kind but clear.. I'll keep that in mind. If it ever gets to that, obviously." She gives a sad smile at his mention of their goodbye. She had to, but she really hadn't wanted to. She had really wanted to stay and travel with him and Ian. "Okay, enough of that. Tell me what you've been up to! Where did you go, how's Ian? Did he manage to go back to Trix and Lia?" Ian's wife and daughter who he hadn't seen in years.

1

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

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He thought for a second. She was right. Technically. But what was the difference? Was it purely stilistic? "Well, there is no difference technically, I suppose... but it is... blunt. I think the problem with it, is that when it comes to flirting, somebody's feelings are always part of the stakes. I prefer to be... kind but clear." His smile was gentle, hiding the sharp sting as he remembered their parting: "Just like you were kind with me and Ian, when you told us you had to come here."

Nissa sighs in defeat. She is utterly lost, and doesn't really like the feeling. She is good in other social interactions, and she doesn't like this sudden insecurity that comes with not knowing what to do, or what to say, "I- how is that different than 'I rather not [insert action here], but I'd like to still hang out'? Just put in flirting, or kissing, or I don't know, hand holding or whatever?" She doesn't mind Frédo laughing at how lost she is. If this wasn't her they were talking about, she'd probably laugh just has hard.

-# @Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

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Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

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Frédo slipped out of his attempted teacher-mode as he burst out laughing and buried his face in his hands at the idea of somebody using those literal words on him to turn him down. "How... how are you soooo... so very adept in every social situation," he spoke after wiping away some tears from laughing. "But so completely blank when it comes to love?" He breathed in deeply for a bit. "Vale, vale, vale so... if somebody would be flirting with me, sì and say they would want something of me that I do not want, okay? Like maybe for example we had been sharing some drinks and a daaaance, and it was all fuuun..." Now his super-yap mode was engaged. "But i was only in it for some fun drinks and dancing, but then they would want to maybe like... go for some more physically intimate, sì, like a kiss." His speech sped up and was accompanied by his hands, gesturing and punctuating his words. "I would probably go for something like, for exampe... Hey, look. I have enjoyed our conversations and the time we had, but this thing you want from me... i am sorry, but i would rather keep things the way they are now. "

She must be missing something. "Uhhh let's play a different game?"

He was flabbergasted for a second at Nissa, of all people, having trouble finding words. Apparently, setting a boundary when being flirted with, was the one single way in the universe to... shut her up? Aside from knocking her out. He gave her words some serious thought, his mouth working as if tasting them. She is still taking the game too seriously... "You are thinking too hard on this. Consider actual dice. Forget the flirting for a bit," he said.

-# OR THRONE

2

Alvilda (Tav: Helaena+)

alvilda_

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

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If Nissa hadn't been trying to absorb as much of what Frédo is telling her as possible, she might have taken the time to laugh at having her own level of yapping returned to her. But as it is, she's trying to apply what he says to herself. It's no surprise to her that they are very different in this regard. He's always been very capable of flirting, and flirting his way into someone's bed, or throne, for a night. Physical intimacy was never an issue, emotional was a different story. He even fought against coming up with a name for their adventuring group, because it would bind him to her and Ian. She's still proud of being able to talk him into that one. "I don't know if I can seriously consider any scenario where we're flirting. Serious flirting that is, not the occasional joke that you make. But, hypothetically, with some vaguely Frédo shaped blob.." She thinks for a long while. This probably shouldn't be so hard. She's good with words, she's talked her way out of weirder situations. Why can't she come up with something for this? "I don't know.. uh, 'I rather not [insert action here], but I'd like to still hang out'?"

-# @Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya PING 😛

Shrugging at Nissa's conclusion about Nimue, he dispelled the image. "Yes, she seems special that one, *no*?" His no's were usually more a rhetorical expression, like how they used "right?" in common. He thought for a bit about Nissa's question. "It depends, really, on what game you are both playing and how far you have... progressed, i suppos is the right word. To *me*...' he put his hands on his chest, 'but this is not the same for everybody... If I am not sure if my partner and I are aiming for the same outcome, I prefer to make things clear before you go into, like... some next level of intimacy or closeness. I simply tell when I start to feel uncomfortable." He pondered his own words for a bit, a slight frown furrowing his sharp, dark eyebrows. When DO I back out of flirting, actually? He couldn't for the life of him remember an instance where he had ended up in a situation where he had allowed the game to continue so far as to become uncomfortable for him on a physical level. Emotionally, though.... "For me, this is usually after sex," he snickered at his own conclusion, "when things like feelings and all the scary stuff become the stake of the game. I prefer to be very clear about it up front, to prevent too much disappointment, you know? Just to be sure the other knows where the game will end. Just be respectful and kind about it. *no sé*... how would you tell me you do not want me to play dice, but you still like me and want to spend time?" Nissa could yap all she wanted. On this specific subject, Frédo out-yapped his little chosen-sister by miles...

Nissa snorts a laugh when Frédo tries to imitate the voice of someone he's never met. He sounds nothing like Geno, and it's even funnier with his accent. She catches the die he throws back, rolling it between her hands as she continues to listen, a brig grin on her face when he summons an image of Nimue. "I did warn you. I think she probably still hasn't realised you were flirting." Her face goes a little more serious. "So, how do I be, you know, kind in letting someone know that I don't want to play the game, without hurting them? If I would like to just be their friend, for example."

His hand caught her die as Frédo grinned at her mischievous little face. "Vale, so as with a game of dice, you will want to learn how to play, no? When you roll the die, it is like making the first move and the outcome is unknown. You can toss out a joke, a compliment or..." Frédo puffed up his chest and lowerd his already low-pitched timbre into an imitation of what he imagined Geno to maybe sound like, "Yeah, I'd like to have waffles if it means I get to keep talking to you! And then you hope the die lands in your favor. If you are lucky, you get a smile or some other littleaffirmation in return. Then..." He tossed the magically summoned 6-sided die back at Nissa. "you can decide to roll again. Or wait for the other to make a move." He dropped his hands back into his lap. "And sometimes you are unlucky, and they don't notice your invitation to the game at all," ge made a small, flowy circular motion with his hand, summoning a small image with his minor illusion cantrip, of a face resembling what he remembered of Nimue.

1

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

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She understands what he's trying to tell her, but the dice analogy is too funny. She snaps her finger, making a small 6-sided die appear in her hand and throws it at Frédo, a mischievous smile on her face. "Yes, we shouldn't be dicks. General rules of social engagements still apply. Go on."

"So..." he continued, as Nissa didn't seem to have any questions, but did seem to listen intently. "For me the whole game is about figuring out if you like somebody and they like you back and if you do, at some point you sort of progress into more physical intimacy or sometimes sex, but you know," he shrugged, "Sometimes you end up just friends, like you and I. You should just be clear about it, and honest." He took another second to think, before continuing. "So, imagine me inviting you to a game of dice, *si*? And you feel like you are up for the game. I throw you some dice, you catch it. I now know you are willing to play, so we start. You can always choose to stop the game, but it would be very rude to just get up and leave without a word, *no*? Or sneak away while I went for a bathroom break."

Games.. Games Nissa understands. Pranks are kind of like games right? Maybe not. The rule that you only play as long as both wish to play is a good one. One that Alex had clearly not understood, but Geno had. "Okay.. that makes sense." This can't be the whole thing though right? It's clearly too easy, and vague at the same time.

Never one to keep back on his opinion when asked, Frédo took a second to think about his words. He did not want to guide his little friend into something she didn't like. But discouraging her to do it was definitely not on his wishlist either. To be entirely honest, he hadn't ever considered Nissa of all people, to be someone he talked to about this. She had been so completely and blatantly indifferent to the whole concept of romantic interest in whatever way, Frédo had just... written it off in his mind. And now, here she was, asking his opinion on flirting! It was both delightful and uncanny. "*Vale*, the way I see it is this..." Frédo started, putting his hands together like a prayer, then touching the tips of his fingers to his nose in thought. He lowered them again, when he continued. "Galanteo... Flirting, it is like a game. It should be fun, it has some rules, everybody who plays has a different tactic, you can play with whomever you want as long as both players wish to play, and decide to quit when you feel like you want to stop for whatever reason." He stopped for a second, checking Nissa's reaction.

Knowing that it could be different from whatever the fuck Alex's deal was, was a little comforting. Nissa sighs. She's been thinking about this for months, and honestly, she doesn't even know what else to talk about. The fact that she's been thinking about it for so long should probably tell her something, but it doesn't. "Opinion, please." Frédo often has a way of putting things that make things make sense. Like telling her she doesn't have to feel bad for what happened back home, because it wasn't on purpose.

"Alex was an example of how not to get it right." Frédo spoke matter of factly, his hands supporting the statement in crisp gestures. "This Geno... he sounds better." At least he seemed to have the social skills necessary to sense someone's reaction.... He shrugged at Nissa's question. "You only know if you like the taste of something after you have given it a try. Do you..." his voice trailed away for a moment as a thought crossed his mind. "... do you want my opinion, or do you want me to just listen?"

Gods, Alex.. The Tiefling boy who'd probably been fascinated by her magic as Nissa herself. At least in Nissa's mind. She'd blocked that particular memory from her mind with how incredibly awkward that had been. "Oh, yes.. Alex is a great example of why I don't have to feel awkward. Because that wasn't awkward at all. No sir." The sarcasm drips from her voice as she dramatically waves her hands around. Her Dark steel brackets clanking together when her hands drop back in her lap. "I don't know.. It felt weird.. What if I just don't like it? What if it's just not for me?"

Frédo cocked an eyebrow at her. "You have been, though. Remember... what's his name? Alex? From Culdor." The tought of that alone nearly made Frédo laugh again. It had been so in-your-face that his had even made him feel awkward for the guy. Alex had been a tad intoxicated, but still... "Either way, why would you feel uncomfortable?! There is no need, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!" His hands spread as if to indicate the entire world, spread out at Nissa's tiny feet.

Nissa can't help but snicker a little, because it is utterly ridiculous. "I mean, I barely know him. I probably only spoke to him for 5 minutes, maybe 10 in total. He seems nice, sure, but.." She takes a moment.. Can she really say the words out loud? Does she dare? Yes, she does. She's Nissa, leader of The Right Crew, and she has done much scarier stuff than talking to her friend."I think he was flirting with me? And I don't know how I feel about being flirted with, I guess.. He was nice about it, stopped when he noticed I wasn't fully comfortable, which felt nice. I just.. I don't think I've ever been on the receiving end of that before, and it's weird."

She seemed actually somewhat disconcerted. His gnomish buddy, who could charm herself out of any situation... Who had spoken to queens, councilmembers, highlords and had knowingly pranked an archfey... Who had faced the undead in a mine, rescued an entire village of them with his and Ian's help... Who could quite literally transport herself all over the world if she had the right runes and who could control lightning and fire... was unnerved because she had been flirted with. Frédo didn't know whether to lose himself in a fit of laughter, or whether he was so completely endeared that his heart just couldn't cope with the idea of laughing right in her face. He couldn't help but settle somewhere in between. A snicker escaped him as he tried to contain some of the laughter, but at the same time his face spoke of warm empathy. "*Cariña...*" He started, know she new the word to mean something in the lines of "dear" or "darling," "I ... Well..." He struggled a bit to find some bit of rare wisdom hidden inside his brain somewhere. He'd been on both ends stoo many times to count, succesfully and unsuccesfully. He should have something to offer her, shouldn't he? "*Déjame pensar*... okay..." He settled a little more solidly into his tailor's seat, straightening his back. It was the first time his hands stopped fidgeting with his ring, as he gestured them in front of him as if making a decision. "So, you feel uncertain about... how you feel for this Geno, *sì?*"

"Yeah..." She rubs her eyes with two fingers. "I'm not quite sure how that happened actually, but he wanted the cake back, Kili offered to give him cookies for him and the other people that live there, and I thought I'd offer waffles, but I didn't want to just buy waffles for everyone there.. I know we made a lot of money from adventuring, but I can't spend it all on waffles, you know?" She sighs, letting her hand drop back into her lap. "I don't know, he seemed to really like that idea? Said it'd be cool if it meant he could keep talking to me? And, now, I know you've used that line before. But I don't know how I feel being on the receiving end of it."

From Nissa’s ramblings Frédo deduced that a “frat” must be some sort of organization. Also, weed-cookies sounded like a weird but wonderful thing. He’d had his share of experiments in the past, ranging from potions (magical or otherwise) to a variety of drug-induced foods, but he’d never been that much of a sweet-tooth. The idea of putting cannabis in a cookie though… hm! There it is… Nissa’s discomfort shone through her attempted casualness like a barbarian attempting to hide behind a sheer curtain. Frédo put all his effort into keeping a straight face. tread carefully now… he thought to himself. [deception: 10 + 8 =18] The one-word-tactic seemed to be working best for now, so he kept at it, face locked into an expression of pure, innocent interest: “…With you?”

Geno.. How to explain Geno.. She's not quite sure. Facts.. She knows facts, those she can be sure of. "He's also a member of the frat. He was nice. I think he's part of the reason they've got all sorts of amenities in the house for smaller races? They have stuff like a stool to reach the tap. Anyway, I talked to him, and he was nice, and has a good sense of humor." Are these still facts? No, let's get back on track. "The frat is called CAKE, and so Kili and I decided to steal a cake too on our first visit, if they had one. Then when we got back Geno knew we had stolen the cake, and it turned out he made it. And, he let us keep it in exchange for some of Kili's weed cookies and waffles.. With me.." Whoops, there it goes. Too late to take it back now. She looks away, a little like she was caught with her hand in a cookie jar, confused why she had her hand in the jar to begin with. Man, this metaphor really doesn't hold up.

2

Yltrin

yltrin

ktwht (Tav: Rue)

ktwht

Close

The whole concept of Nissa and her roommate Kili talking their way into this didn't really surprise him much. NIssa could talk her way into and out of all sorts of trouble. He pictured the whole scene in his mind's eye. He wished he'd been there, if not to join in on the prank, then just to watch, observe and put into a shenanigans-song. He fondly remembered the song of their adventures in Gaia he'd worked on with Nissa, the minor illusions she had created to add to his music, make the stories come to life. As Nissa took in her super deep breath, he mirrored her movement, his eyes wide and eyebrows raised in a look that spoke of anticipation and slight overwhelm on the amount of words. As if her yapping took up so much air, he actually felt the breathlessness. As she kept on talking, he listened while taking of the wooden thumb-ring and spinning it around on another finger. His brow furrowed slightly at the jumble of events about Geno being kinda nice, casting daylight and just running back off. Back to the good-old tactic of... "Geno...?"

Nissa nods at Frédo's first question. "Yeah, at first we kind of lied our way into the building. He lives in one of the fraternity houses on campus. There was this guy, Geno, who let us in and just let us into Elnaril's room because we said we were friends of Elnaril, and we needed notes that were in his room. We got the bed and flew out the window, but Kili kind of got stuck and made a lot of noise, so Geno saw us." She pauses for a big breath before continuing. "Then when we got back, Kili suggested we go back and try and pass the Gnome sized bed off as Elnaril's. So we got there, and kind of explained to Geno that we were just doing a prank, but we felt bad, and then we kind of got talking, and it turned out that Geno was actually kind of nice, and he also thought Elnaril is a dick, so he let us replace the bed, and then I cast daylight on it, to make it super bright." The end of that story get's a little confused, because Nissa isn't quite sure what happened herself.

Frédo leaned in with a conspiratorial grin, watching Nissa wiggle like an eager puppy about to commit mischief. The playful spark in her eyes was matched by his own as he listened, the corner of his mouth twitching into a sly smile. "So, his bed’s in Kili’s room now? How can you make sure he doesn't know it's you?"

"Well, this was the main one, the biggest one, The small stuff is just the small stuff." She shuffles her butt into the bed a little, getting into super yap mode. "So there's this guy on campus, he's incredibly rude. He's famous on Twatter too, but maybe infamous is a better description. His name is Elnaril, and he's a real bully. He made fun of me for being a gnome." And by gnome, she means short." "Anyway I made it look like he shat his pants, but when Kili became my roommate, she needed a new bed, because our whole dorm room is gnome sized, so her bed was too. So we decided to steal his bed! Seemed like the perfect prank to pay him back for being mean."

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1

Yltrin

yltrin

❤️

Close

Again, the reference to the phone and Spotiweave. He was going to have to dive into that, there was no escaping it. It almost felt like a bare necessity to even make contact with the world. Before he even thought to ask, Nissa jumped into another story. Her enthusiastic chatting about all of her shenanigans just... His little friend was simply too adorable to interrupt. Not that he wanted to... He'd save his stories for later. "Only one?" he jokingly asked. "Surely, there have been more pranks... Tell me all of them!"

"I'd be happy to introduce you to the people I know. I'm sure you'd be welcome to visit our practice some time. And listening to the music on Spotiweave will definitely help. I'll send you all the playlists the others sent me, just to give you a start. It's got a bunch of everything." Nissa is very sure he will be able to pick up the local music and make it his own much faster than she did. He is the musician, after all. "OH! I should tell you another funny story! I did this hilarious prank with my roommate, Kili."

Nissa's excitement was contagious. He would have been so happy if she'd had her guitar with her. Teaching her to play the strings had been a joy in the first place. To learn that she had kept at it, made him curious for her progress. "I should get to know some people... Or at least, people should learn about me being here. I need to make a living and one of the few things i can do, is entertain..." he bit his lip ponderingly. "I will be playing here on a regular basis, see if i can draw in some people to fill up the place. But music is much different here, it seems, no? I might actually have to learn some new skills from YOU now! Other than this teknolagy and the phone *prohgam*."

Nissa's eyes widen as she gasps with excitement. "We should!!! Oh, you should come to our band practice some time so you can meet the rest. Maybe you can make a guest appearance or something, if the others think that's okay. And we can just play together too!" She's trying really hard not to grab her phone to show Frédo some of the songs they've played, not wanting to overwhelm him with more technology. She can't show recordings of their performance anyway.

perking up at the idea of Nissa actually playing in a band, Frédo's face lit up in joyful pride. a guitar... he'd seen them. Held them. Played them. They were not very common jn Gaia, where more traditional instruments were often favored, but nevertheless this was something he knew! He considered them easier to play, because of the fewer strings a guitar carried, with a guitar usually having six strings, where his Ava had 8 pairs of strings and could be altered slightly to accomodate for another 2 pairs to add more bassy tones. The train of thought didn't take an eyeblink of time. "You should show me what you can do! We could play together, you and I, it will be fun, *no*?"

Nissa lets Frédo contemplate for a while. There's a lot to take in, it had been for her when she came here. The big difference being that she chose to come here, and he had not. All the changes, the new information, the teleportation itself, it's draining. When he's collected himself, she happily continues her stories. "Yes! Oh boy have I! I joined a band! My roommate, Kili, has these two girlfriends who started the band, and I play guitar. We're 5 women now, and we're called Arsène, we had our first concert here in the bar a little while ago. We did really well, like, we get to come back and do it again sometime, well."

Gaia had its own culinary delicacies, pizza being one of them. Frédo didn't particularly like them, nor disliked them. He preferred simpler, less fatty foods. However... "Are they very different from back home?" He wondered out loud. "They must be, no? Everything is..." It still blew his mind. His gaze slid towards the window, dark now that the sun had set. The sky, however, was alight, the clouds a pastel orange from the many, many, many lights shining from the campus underneath. The landscape was covered in a blanket of snow. Stars were few here, as well. He felt tiredness settle into his bones as his body found some rest and warmth after a long day of hard, physical work. His hand fidgeted with one of the rings he wore, fingers rapidly turning the simple, shiny wooden band around his thumb in a motion that seemed entirely unsonscious. What else had Nissa mentioned: [History: 18 + 2=20] right... "And the singing?" He directed his gaze back to Nissa with a small grin. "Have you praticed your strings in my absence?"

They had done more impressive things on their travels, and Nissa had walked away from those without a scratch. But that cube nearly killed her. Thankfully Frédo didn't ask about it. "Yeah, pizza! I don't know, I've had good pizza, and I thought I could make some." She holds up her hand as if about to snap her fingers. "I could at least make it taste like the best pizza I've had." She smirks. "It just seemed like fun, you know? I didn't really know people here yet, and I thought I could make some friends."

He politely looked at the video on weavetube that Nissa showed him, but he missed the joke. Nissa's sense of humor had always sort of... amused him in itself. Its uniqueness. They had many shared jokes and funny moments, though, so maybe this was also just the new technology and some stuff in this world that he had yet to figure out and get to know. Resolutely, he took the phone back and put it aside, settling more closely in front of his friend, legs tucked in a tailor's seat. He bent forward slightly, making straight eye-contact easier, a twinkle in them as he smiled. "You can show me more about this phone and the prohgram later. I would rather hear more of your adventures here!" He pulled the blanket over his shoulders a little tighter and wished for a good glass of wine, which he mentally put on his shopping list. "So, you went on a date with Dennis and defeated a gelatinous cube, *si, si, si, si.*" He casually waved his hand, as if it were nothing. "You have done more impressive things in our travels. But pizza making...?"

"Uh huh! I asked him about it, and he showed me this." She takes back the phone and looks on weavetube until she finds the right video. "He said he thought that video was so funny he kind of made it his thing? Like he's embodying it or something. I don't really remember, but that's why he wears a paper bag over his head. He's really nice though." https://youtu.be/FZUcpVmEHuk?si=FTmRvoCVJWrK0x-l

Fredo: The answer was so quintessentially Nissa, he just went along with her bland stare. There was no reasoning with her about this. "A bag...?" Frédo asked, resorting back to a familiar tactic of simply repeating one or two words or a sentence he'd picked up from her yapping, to guide her into talking more about it.

1

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

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"I have no idea who this cat is, or if it even is a familiar, but it's really funny! You can even make them yourself." She turns the phone over to show him the camera on the back. "This thing is called a camera, and you can use it to make video's and photo's like that. Then you post them on Weavetube or Mystiktok, and people can watch them." Nissa doesn't really blanch as this question, just snorts softly. "Like a friend date. He said he didn't have a girlfriend to go with on Twatter, and I said I'm a girl who is a friend and we could go together if he wanted, and so we did. It was fun! He always walks around with a bag over his head. Easy to recognise if you ever see him."

He stared at the screen, mesmerized. Moving images, sharper than he could probably achieve with his minor illusion, passed before his eyes. He wasn't sure where the sounds came from either. Even though he couln't understand half of the jokes, he did chuckle at the cat familiar comically chastising him. The longer it lasted, the more he laughed. "Who is this familiar?" He asked happily, pointing at the cat. "Are they twatter famous too, like you? They live here on this campus?" The whole concept of videos went over his head. He did realize he was not looking at something happening in that moment, but apparently some image or hypothetical situation that somebody had created and decided to share. It blew his mind how one tiny device like this, could contain so much. "This is almost like casting a... *sending *spell or maybe a programmed illusion spell, but for an entire group of people to see, over and over again. "Well," Frédo said, as he tore away his gaze from the phone again and focused back on his friend. "You went to a gala with Dennis?" A mischievous, crooked grin, followed by a lowering of his already deep and vibrating voice. Frédo bent over confidentially, his eyes piercing Nissa's. "Like a... date?"

"Oh, I'd love to introduce you!" She takes the phone, clicks away the Moogle maps window, and opens Twatter. "Let me see.." She scolls for a bit through her twats and mentions until she finds three hilarious ones. "Oh, look, one of these even has a video of a Queen song, the one I sang at the karaoke!" She shows Frédo each twat in turn, not trusting his big fingers to mess with it while she's showing him stuff. https://discord.com/channels/1151902831310274651/1301553246682353694/1319449596971454517 https://discord.com/channels/1151902831310274651/1301553246682353694/1319022712462774434 https://discord.com/channels/1151902831310274651/1301553246682353694/1326981097837297796

Nissa’s avalanche of stories drew Frédo’s attention away from the phone, his eyes – now back to dark brown but with veins of autumny red and golden yellow – directed back at the happy gnome sitting on his bed. Who cared about other-worldly artificery devices with so much to catch up to? Nissa rushed through her endeavors at a pace he could actually keep up with, but didn’t leave room to ask questions. Hence, he just chose to listen attentively and insert the appropriate “oh!’s”, “nooo!’s” and “uh-huh’s”. His eyebrow raised approvingly at the necklace she showed him. It reminded him of the magical trinkets he had carved from his feywild wood, the sending-cigar for Ian, the apple-orchard smelling beads that Nissa still carried around her tiny neck. He smiled at that. It warmed his heart to see that she had kept it, with all the interesting stuff this universe apparently had to offer. There was only so much room on a neck to put necklaces and trinkets… “You should introduce me to these friends of yours, *hermanita*, they sound like good company, *no*?. This Dennis, show me something he made on this proh-gram you mentioned!” he handed the phone back to Nissa, mostly because he was actually curious, but also because his absent-minded tapping on the glass screen had opened up a prohgram that showed some sort of map with a blue dot, a lot of grey lines amid green and greyed-oud squares which were accompanied by names like “Lorehold campus,” “Prismari campus,” and other similar words that he recognized from his first scouting of the campus… and he didn’t know what to do with it. He figured it must be some sort of map, but when trying to tap the ‘home’ button to get back to the home screen, it didn’t disappear but shrank to a small version that was stuck to the bottom-right side of the screen.

She snorts, she's barely touched a book since she got here. She probably should have, but there was just so much fun stuff to do. "OH man, I've done so much stuff! I saved Nimue from being lost in the stadium, there was this other guy, Vaelyr and his wolf. He was really grumpy and didn't like magic, but I got him to let me cast fly on him. There was karaoke, where you sing along with songs. I actually sang a Queen song." She points back at the phone when she talks about the song. "That's were I met Kili, who became my roommate. She wasn't registered for school, so she hacked her way in." "I participated in a pizza making competition, I didn't win, but that's mostly because they only had tall people tables, so I had to stand on a stool. That's where I met my friend Delton, he got me this necklace." She pulls a silver coloured pendant with a dark purple stone from underneath her shirt. "I can cast reduce with it, to make things my size." "There was a Winter formal ball, definitely not as fancy as the ball in Rheine, but it was a good excuse to get my fancy Feywild outfit out again. I went with this guy named Dennis, he's super funny and has all these funny video's that he just knows to share. He's on Twatter too. There was actually a gelatinous cube that he got stuck in, and me and some others fought against it." She doesn't mention how it nearly killed her. The bruise to her ego still stings a little. She pauses for breath, thinking about what other stuff she got up to while she was here.

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1

Yltrin

yltrin

❤️

Close

He squinted his eyes in fake annoyance and suspicion at Nissa’s laughter. He chose to believe the wasn’t messing with him… for now… He tapped the icon again, opening this proh-gram called spotiweave. The letters that he had tapped were gone, so with the slightest pang of annoyance, he started again. He was nothing if not persistent when it came to learning new things. It had cost him years of daily practice and discipline to learn his instruments and music theory, so he could learn this technology device as well. “So, anyway,” he started, as his thumb again tapped the w in stead of the q and he fumbled to get rid of it, “what mischief have you been up to here? Don't tell me you have only spent all your time in books, because I won't believe it.”

Nissa chuckles. "Yes, that was very entertaining." She says in reference to Frédo's attempt at flirting with Nimue. "Queen is a band, I think you'll like them. I guess Atificery is sort of similar? I'm not quite sure how these are made, but people here call it technology." Nissa shrugs, it works, that's really all she needs to know. Nissa bursts out laughing when Frédo, after a lot of struggling, accidentally goes back to the home screen. "Sorry.. Sorry. I shouldn't laugh, it's just really funny seeing someone else struggle as much as I did at the start. You accidentally hit the home button." She points at the button at the bottom of the screen. "That takes you back to here. If you press the Spotiweave icon again, it should take you back to where you were." This might take a while, but if she does everything for him, he'll never learn. Besides, it's nice to just be in his company again. Nissa is in no rush, it's not like she has classes to go to

Frédo's mind buzzed with all the information. The flashing screens, the speed at which Nissa was obviously handling the thing with expertise after the practice she'd had. "You do remember that you warned me against engaging with princesses only this morning, yes? And now you are telling me to look up a Queen..." He joked. He understood the assignment though. "Technology, you mean kind of like... artificery? Creating machines?" [intelligence check: 1 + 0] It was a marvel. As he took over the phone from Nissa and tapped it, he expected to sense *something*. In stead, he just tapped glass, but the image he saw, responded. He tapped the little green icon that his little friend had called "spotiweave" and found an overwhelming amount of colours, tabs and teeny tiny letters. He typed, but his fingers, callused from years and years of strumming a lute's strings, kept missing the tiny Q. After trying for a solid 5 minutes and reaching the point of Q-U-E... The thing just went back to the first picture he'd seen. A blueish screen with all the pictograms of proh-gram on it. "*¿qué carajo?*" he muttered. "What the fuck is this?" His eyes flashed to Nissa's, scanning her face for likely mischief on her part.

"Hmm, *program*" She enunciates carefully, slowing down to a normal speed before picking up again. "It's technology, do you remember the big trams in Rheine? It's kind of like that. If it's magic, probably conjuration of illusion.." She keeps typing at the phone while she speaks until.. "There! I've set up some things for you. She points at a green icon. "That's Spotiweave, that has all the music. You should really look up a band called Queen, I think you'll like them." Next she point at an icon with a blue bird. "This is Twatter. You can put messages on there, and other people at school can read them! People on there are all Twatter famous, and if one responds to you, you're Twatter famous too! Nimue is the one that made me Twatter famous. You just need to make a username, mine's Wildthunder."

1

Yltrin

yltrin

Close

His eyes blinked at the sudden light coming from the device. The buttons were so tiny. "A what? Proh-gramme?" The word came awkwardly with his accent. What even was she talking about? His eyes scanned over the motions her hands make, her thumb rapidly tapping and sliding over the illuminated glass. Images and pictograms passing in mere eyeblinks. He'd never seen anything like it. Fascination took over. It reminded him of small illusions somehow, hidden inside a thin box. "What school of magic is this thing, then? Is it some form of conjuration or Illusion magic?"

"It's a phone! It's like magic, except not. It's technology, and they have a lot of it here. It's weird, but I managed to figure it out mostly by myself, so I thought I'd help you while we catch up!" She leans over and presses the power button. The screen lights up with a soft jingle. "That's how you turn it on. These buttons here control the volume. Oh, man! There's this program on it called Spotiweave that has so much music. You're going to love that. I thought of you immediately. I'll make sure to install it for you."

The sound of her high-pitched chatter washing over him made the place more like home than anywhere he'd been in the past couple of months. Sure, he'd been places that he had visited multiple times, caught up with people he'd already known. Very few of them very close, though. Travelling together for months, bunking down day after day, getting soaked in the rain while camping out on a bad night, grumpily muttering at eachother in the mornings after, then going about saving each others lives in pretty much the same breath. It created something that just... stayed. But she didn't, did she? the softest voice nudged at the back of his mind. She left... Frédo suppressed the thought vigorously, murdered it, smashed it as he would a mosquito. He was past that sore spot. Had been for a long time. He had chosen to change it. Allowed it to heal. Nissa and Ian both had been indispensible to it and he was NOT going to allow it to fester again. He also just couldn't get rid of the smile stuck to his face at her pratter as he sauntered over to the bed, plopped down opposite Nissa as she kept on chatting and pulled one of the - at least! - five blankets over his shoulders. A small frown of confusion furrowed his brow as she handed him a slightly-smaller-than-hand-sized, glass and metallic, rectangular disk. It had tiny protrusions on the side, a hole in one end and on the metallic side, there were three, circular glass shapes. "What is this?" he asked as he turned the thing around in his hands.

1

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

Close

"Hey hey! Damn it's nice to see you!" She steps inside and looks around the room. "Well, since you said you'd found a place to stay in your Sending, I couldn't not stop by, could I. I needed to see how you live. You know, this is actually not much bigger than my dorm. It's nice though.. Smaller that I expected for you, but I like it. It suits you somehow." She climbs onto the bed and sits there. "It is a little cold for you, but other than that, it's good. The lamp is nice! Funny right, all these lamps everywhere? Took me a while to get used to them, to flicking a switch to turn them on and off. Oh, talking about new stuff, I bought you something. I know all your money got left behind, but lucky for you I still have most of mine!" She pulls out a phone from her backpack. "Here you go! With this you won't have to use magic to send me messages!" She smiles brightly, knowing full well he has know idea what she's showing him.

A shiver ran down Frédo's back, an unfortunate side-effect of the open window. His fingers were numb from scrubbing in the cold and with him living in a wooden attic, a warm hearth was not included. He missed his Sunshine's Embrace cloak, which had been tucked neatly in his backpack in the Tipsy Butterfly. He muttered grumpily at he idea of some random stranger, warmly tucked away in the cloak that kept away the cold at all times. No point in dwelling on that now... He rubbed his hands together in the hopes of creating some sense of life back into his fingers, to no avail. At this point, Nimue's argument on the comfort of blankets seemed very sensible. As he took the entire three steps of his long, spindly legs from one side of the room t the other to settle on his elevated chillzone, a soft but rather enthusiastic knock came at his door. Reflexively, the fingers of his right hand reached for Ava still snugly fitted to the wall and tapped her strings, as his left hand reached over towards the latch on his wooden door. The air trembled from Ava's nearly inaudible tone, the vibrations invisible to everybody's eye but Frédo's. They collided together and a faintly glowing, light blue spectral hand appeared, shooting towards the latch. As Frédo realised how utterly rude it would be for him to just throw open the door with no introduction, he dismissed his mage hand and took the entirety of the three steps back to unlatch the door. A wide grin split his face as he saw Nissa's familiar figure at his door. 'Hermanita, ¡qué bueno verte! It is so good to see you!' He stepped aside, "what do you think, huh? The smell is gone, but it's cold as ice now. This concept of electricity is strange, but the lamps look nice, *no*?" he stepped back inside, closing the door behind his friend. "What brings you, *amiguita*?" The mixture of his native language combined with common rolling off his tongue might have been confusing to anybody, but not her.

Nissa comes prepared when she visits Frédo's room. As familiar as it had been to hear his voice in her head from a sending spell, a phone is really much more convenient if you happen to be talking to someone when the message gets delivered. So she's here, with a new phone for him, and every intention of teaching him how to use it while they catch up on everything that's been happening. Living above an inn suits him, considering where he grew up, but she's a little disappointed he didn't chose somewhere closer to the dorms to live. Who knows, maybe she'll convince him of it yet (that's extermely unlikely, but a girl can dream). Anyway, she's here! Her best friend is here! She rolls back and forth on her feet as she knocks on the door.

Then again, the string of lightbulbs glowing gently above his bed and pillowed window did look nice... Another glance around the room reminded Frédo to clean out the bucket of now dirty water that he'd used to clear the place of dust. It would have been easier to ask Nissa and Nimue to use their prestidigitation but there was something satisfying about working with your own hands. It helped him sleep better. There was just one thing left to do... Frédo picked up some wooden pegs with a small curve, attaching them to nails that he'd already hammered into one of the wooden beams above his bed. There was no need for him to measure. He knew exactly what size she needed... after installing the pegs, he picked up his lute Ava from the corner he had stored her in for the time being and hung her up, snugly fitting in her new home.

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1

Clara - Tav: Mim / Anareya

claraoswaldttv

❤️

Close

After having the window open for half a day, the musty smell of old, unused, empty attic was finally starting to make room for actually breathable air. Fédo stretched his back, the topmost strands of his hair barely brushing the ceiling. I am going to have to put up some padding up there if i want to keep my face intact he thought, his eyes locked on the very low, slanted ceiling above his bed. Surely, headbumps were going to happen there. Nevertheless, he felt satisfied. It had been a day. Getting teleported without warning, a reunion with his closest friend Nissa after months, then the hassle of finding a place to stay while having no money. He did have one thing: skilled fingers and a smooth tongue. Which came in useful, since the Gold Lion Inn had an empty attic, an empty stage (most of the time) and could make use of somebody filling up both on a regular basis. All that had been left for Frédo to do, was weed away the cobwebs and their inhabitants (dead or alive), clean the place out and turn it into his own. Which had cost him pretty much all of the handful of coins that had been teleported along with him, alongside some more smooth talking and bargaining. Good thing he had arranged for both lodgings AND food in exchange for his work... And then there was this realm in and of itself! Things were marvellously weird here. Buildings erected from more glass than stone, roads covered in some type of smooth, pressed together, black gravel called asphalt, rather than cobblestones or packed dirt. It made for very effecient but extremely ugly travel in some type of carriage, painted in all sorts of colors, which seemed to drive itself. They were fast, noisy and left the worst smell after passing. He didn't like 'em... And then there was this weird concept of having to press a button to turn on a lamp in the room. Why would somebody come up with that? Candles, oil lanterns or a cantrip or spell casting ligt had always done the trick...

Two stairs and one ladder up, tucked away underneath the roof of the Gold Lion inn, one finds a small, cozy room. A single window looks out over the campus in the distance. The highest point of the slanted ceiling is just barely high enough for its 6'2" occupant to stand up straight. Underneath the window, a foot-high elevation with drawers is covered in two put-together matresses and a pile of neatly folded blankets. The window, just wide enough to sit in, contains a bunch of fluffy pillows and a string of small lightbulbs is attached to the frame above, shedding a warm light through the space on dark days and nights. Tucked away on the side is a small desk with more drawers. The place looks rather empty otherwise, for now at least... On busy nights, the mumble and laughter of guests downstairs can be heard through the wooden floorboords. It's not much... but it's his!