(open) i've had just about enough

[corundrum]

Characters: Padparadscha and you!
Date: Various parts of April
Location: Aifaran streets, Dreaming Bridge (Breakwater Wing)
Situation: April affinity shenanigans, specifically Commerce 1, Sci-Tech 4 and Meta 5.
Warnings/Rating: None yet.


[A: April 12th-13th, Aifaran streets]

[Apparently it's a good week for overpriced beauty sales carts, because Padparadscha has been seeing a lot of the weird little things spring up. And the owners have taken a very weird liking to dragging them across to their carts to try and test out a stunning range of their products.

It usually stumps the salespeople a bit when they touch "skin" and feel something vaguely powdery over rock. Padparadscha, for their part, is taking it with good grace, laughing lightly as they take their arm back.]

Hey, maybe you should try it on someone with real "skin". Like them. [Congratulations random passer-by with skin, you're getting pointed out.]

--

[B: April 10th-19th, Dreaming Bridge Breakwater Wing]

[Apparently at least one of the researchers has noticed the amount of time Padparadscha's been spending around the city's scientific communities recently, because there's an odd little garden set up in the Breakwater Wing common room. A "hydroponic gardening unit" had been as good as gibberish to them until the scientist explained it, but after getting a better idea of what it was, Padparadscha accepted readily. It'd be interesting to keep some plants, with their short lives and fragile beauty, and it's mostly flowers that are taking up the unit.

There are a couple of fruit and vegetable plants too, though, because even if Padparadscha can't make use of those, some of the others might be able to. Still, they're only in the process of growing, and sometimes Padparadscha can be found leaning over the setup with yimo in hand and a faintly petulant look.]

Rutile really was better at this sort of thing, huh...?

--

[C: April 15th-19th, Dreaming Bridge]

[Padparadscha definitely doesn't remember entering any kind of raffle - or knowing what that is - but it seems like a waste to turn down the prize on offer. Though they don't really have much need of enchanted household items, there are certain ones that can be of use to them otherwise.

The one they've chosen is a thick, heavy cleaning cloth, the kind of thing that would be used to go over smooth, polished surfaces. It's also quite happy to keep floating around and doing that all by itself, which has prompted a bit of an idea from Padparadscha.

They can't remove their powder still, but that isn't going to stop them from sitting around in various parts of the Dreaming Bridge and letting the heavy cloth work through polishing the different locks of their gem-like hair. It lingers on a single area long enough to leave it shimmering before moving on, though Padparadscha looks a little bit bored despite the fact that they're still wearing an amused smile.]

Don't make me sit here all day, okay?

--

[D: Wildcard]

[[Feel free to hit me up at reviseleviathan to plot other stuff!]]

Comments

[corundrum]

[Padparadscha's lingering amusement remains, though that's pretty much a normal state of being for them. It's hard to take anything much too seriously once you've lived as long as they have.]

I don't hear people talking about similar things from their worlds that often, so I've been taking the chance where I find it. It's certainly something to know there might be more things like me out there.

[They flick at their shirt, which has been hanging mostly closed despite being unbuttoned - when their torso is revealed, it also reveals several tunnels through it filled by pink-orange gemstones, the same colour as Padparadscha's hair and nails.]

I am Padparadscha. It's good to meet you in person.

[afoolsgold]

[The Fool doesn't mean to stare with such wide-eyed shock at the state of Padparadscha's torso as they reveal it to him--but how can he not, given how strange the sight is to a person made of flesh and blood? He at least knows better than to reach out and try to touch one of the glittering gems embedded in their body.]

Oh, [he nevertheless exclaims, wonderingly, and looks up to Padparadscha's face again.] Do they cause you pain?

[corundrum]

[Padparadscha laughs a little at the reaction, waving a hand and tracing one of their own fingers over the filled holes.] My people don't really feel pain in the same way humans seem to. I was created incomplete, so from where I'm standing, it's no different to how anyone else would feel normally.

[It's all they know, even if they can only be conscious when those holes are filled up anyway. And now that they seem to have been fixed on a more permanent basis, it seems they may not even be a real source of frustration to them anymore.]

[afoolsgold]

['Created incomplete.' The Fool has spent most of his life walking a path that he trusts will lead him in the right direction, relying on hints given to him in vague, stylized dreams and spinning riddles to his compatriots because those riddles were as close as he could get to offering them clear explanation. He's made it his life's work to inhabit a space 'in between'; between the world that is, and the world that is meant to be. Making sense of the insensible is sort of his shtick--but this? Well.]

I don't think I understand, [he admits after a lengthy pause, smiling uncertainly.] You mean to say you were born--wounded?

[corundrum]

[It doesn't seem to trouble Padparadscha on the surface, his polite confusion only eliciting a faint laugh. It's easier to distance themselves from it when they're no longer a burden on those closest to them, one way or another.]

My people are born of rock. Sometimes that means imperfections, but most can be fixed - honed and perfected, just like any other stone. But not mine. To wake up, I need to be completed with fragments of stones like me. I have to wonder whose idea it was in the first place to finish this little puzzle of mine.

[Probably Kongou-sensei, but they never exactly asked.]

[afoolsgold]

[There is much going on here that the Fool does not understand, though that does not frustrate him or leave him wanting to be elsewhere. Considering Padparadscha is like having an incomplete puzzle in front of him, but sussing out where the missing pieces are would require him to be more intrusive than he has any business being with such a new acquaintance.

So instead, the Fool smiles lightly and tips his head to the side.] I wonder if I shall ever grow accustomed to how extraordinarily different we Dreamfolk are from each other--and I had thought myself a perpetual outsider, in my own world. [He looks back to Padparadscha, expression almost apologetic.] I fear there is still so much I do not understand.

[corundrum]

[That seeming concern makes Padparadscha laugh, the sound round and upbeat.] Ah, well, I know how that feels. My world is nothing like this one. No cities, or commerce, or science...nothing these people seem to take to so easily here. Figuring things out is a bit of an adventure in itself, huh?

[There's more to that than they're willing to admit right now, like their only real exposure to science in their own world being the same Moon People who constantly attacked, and the lack of cities being for lack of their people, but it's enough to build some kind of rapport on, they feel.]

[afoolsgold]

[Light, whimsical laughter follows, and the Fool gives Padparadscha a knowing sort of look.] Oh yes, [he agrees wryly,] it has been quite the adventure for me as well. Although I will say I have not yet adjusted to the novelty of merely pressing a button and watching water for tea boil itself, or flipping a switch on a wall to turn on a light.

And these devices, [he adds, fetching out his yimo to turn it this way and that; frankly, he still looks a bit afraid of it.] I always wonder whether or not I've left it turned on, and that everyone in Aifaran can hear me talking to myself. [Or singing to himself while unpacking his new apartment, more likely.]

[corundrum]

The lights are a little strange for me as well, but at least I don't have to worry about being confused over food and drink. [Considering they don't need it, it's saved Padparadscha a lot of figuring more things out besides when they've been observing the strange foods people here make out of plants.

Padparadscha slides out the yimo as well, looking more confident with it but handling it somewhat like it's made of glass. Which, to someone made of stone, it essentially is.] It's a funny little thing, isn't it? But I won't say it's not useful. Being able to communicate over such long distances is the kind of thing it's impossible to pass on when it's available.