I Want to Try Everything!

[unfavorableinstigation]

Characters: Nita Callahan, starring as One Confused Wizard, and YOU.
Date: First half of February, basically (1st - 16th, depending on prompt.)
Location: The Dreaming Bridge to start, then basically anywhere you'd expect a new Dreamfolk to wander into!
Situation: Multiple - see prompts below the cut~
Warnings/Ratings: None yet!



At the Dreaming Bridge:
... Well, in retrospect, given that warning dream!Carmela had given her, Nita really shouldn't have been surprised. Even if she had been dumped in a new dimensional intersection, with a strange tattoo on the inside of her right elbow, isolated from Manual communications (but not her stored notes, strangely enough) and her claudication's contents but not the claudication itself, and in a place that knew more about her current status than she did about its own!

With no clue where to start, Nita turned to the local resources to check out as much as possible. Please let this just be an errantry thing... was her (probably in vain) hope.

• Oh God, Youths!: Nita should have counted herself lucky the (admittedly cute) kids had gotten her charm bracelet, which would have been replaceable with time, instead of her Manual, which wouldn't.

Instead, she was just mad.

"Hey! Wait a minute! What do you need that for?!"

Someone might want to help a wizard out.

• Pricey Divination: "Hey! I know you! I've seen you in a vision!"

Nita stopped in her tracks, turning her head hard to look the vendor in the eye.

"Oh, really?" she said. She was curious - and concerned. The fortune-teller might have just balked a little under the force of her stare, but she walked on over from her sightseeing trek anyway.

"I- uh, Yes! I did. I can only tell you more if you can spare a rhinn, though."

"Oh really," Nita repeated, tone in her voice dropping somewhere into the temperature realms of Pluto's service in just those two words.

People were beginning to stare.

"Because, and this is just from one oracular talent to another, if I were able to charge for every time I recognized someone in a vision that contained potentially vital information? I'd be a millionaire. Or I'd be dead. Either way..." As she spoke, she walked all the way over to the fortune-teller's stall and leaned gently on the table.

There was definitely a crowd now.

• Third Hand’s Third Hand Store: The bell rung, and Nita really hoped it was another customer, or else someone who could distract the shopkeeper. She bent carefully over a shelf as the owner breathed - or at least looked and felt like they were breathing - on her neck.

/I'm having difficulty making a decision when you're watching every move I make, okay?/ she said in the Speech, hoping that would have some effect and that it hadn't come out in as much of a hiss as she thought it had.

• Rosemary and Thyme: Nita had been doing a fair job of injecting herself in the local cultures - or so she had thought. Getting an assignment from a rather enthusiastic young-adult-adjacent (that had, strangely enough, reminded her of Kit's friend Cheleb) should have been a good sign.

But she just could not find the thing, and part of her was frustrated beyond words. Another was beginning to think it was a setup. The rest had been relegated to asking for help:

"Uh, excuse me, have you seen or heard of an, ah...?"

• Hydroponic Bounty: [Locked to Kai]
Nita looked over her new in-home hydroponic farm unit.

This might just be the easiest job I've ever had...

Still, something seemed like it was missing - and she sighed out loud as she recognized it as nostalgia for home.

I haven't even been here a week. Her shoulders slumped, though she didn't quite sink back onto her bed to go with it.

META RANK 4
• Woven Words: "Are you sure?" Nita asked.

The little old lady - even in her species, somehow the age signs remained similar - nodded, smile cryptic.

"Well, all right." Nita put her hands on the offered yarn and began to knot in the indicated pattern.
/cut>

Comments

aw, thanks! i'm fond of it. filled out permissions too. :3

[psituational]

X answered quickly, because the fortune teller looked like they were about to, and with the way they drew themselves up -- haughty and offended -- there was no way anything they said would lead anywhere good.

"It sounds like a way to make a living," said X, "for someone without much skill they can use doing anything else."

The fortune teller deflated, subdued enough not to try and interfere further.

When X spoke next, it was to introduce himself, all little warm smiles and curiosity. "I'm X. You're Dreamfolk, I take it? I didn't think any of the people living here had enough visions to become millionaires."

Fun times are ahead! :>>>

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita really appreciated the cut-off - and to that effect, stepped more away from the table (and confrontation) herself.

"Fair compromise, though that mostly just makes me feel sorry for him, and I don't want to feel sorry for him right now," Nita admitted in a whisper, glancing only once to where she knew the vendor stood behind her.

/Dai Stiho,/ she greeted, though the cheerfulness implied by her words hadn't caught up in her tone yet.

"And yes, I think that's what I am here. Though it's not so much a matter of winning money anyway... life just gets hectic, sometimes, and I can't always make sense of what I see until I'm right in the moment."

She shook her head.

[psituational]

/Dai Stiho,/ X replied -- not quite absentmindedly, but in the way of someone who had just realised they'd forgotten to be polite in their excitement. "That's alright, and very self-aware of you. Let's move on, so you don't need to feel sorry for him anymore."

And X led the way back out onto the street, stepping carefully backwards so he could keep talking to Nita.

"I have a friend who sees glimpses of the future," he said. "Or at least, that's what I think she does. She's never made it clear. I think sometimes she can't make sense of them, and just pretends she knows everything."

[unfavorableinstigation]

It didn't take Nita immediately by surprise - even being the lone wizard in an are couldn't preclude anyone else from knowing the Speech.

She could hit herself for missing anything about this picture later; she had other things on her mind.

"Better for both of us that way," she agreed. As they walked, she nodded... then snorted.

"Probably wants to avoid questions of legitimacy, but that's not a fair plan. Acting confident is one thing; pretending to know everything is another."

Because sometimes you had to fake it til you made it... but it could still come back to bite you.

"I hear the part about them not making sense, though."

[psituational]

X nodded. "To be fair, she's a god. I don't think they're capable of making sense."

He said this as easily and casually as 'To be fair, she's from Chesedonia'; like being friends with gods was a normal and commonplace thing where X was from. It wasn't, as a matter of fact, but he'd long since forgotten first meeting Lakshmi.

"What sorts of visions do you normally see?" he asked instead. "Are they about people, or events?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

And that made Nita do a double-take; sure, she had more evidence than she thought one person could get that the Powers weren't infallible, or even omnipotent - but she didn't count herself as a personal friend of one of Them!

Though, she still probably had more person-to-person contact with Them than most wizards did, not that she thought on it constantly.

"Think that gets on Their nerves too, sometimes," she replied, capitalizing the pronoun subconsciously.

"Especially when They don't normally live a linear-timeline lifestyle."

Again, she made a wry face.

"Both, really; sometimes even at the same time. Some of the most gripping ones were like clip shows, but other times it was just one scenario with one other person."

[psituational]

"Making sense?" X nodded in agreement. "My husband and I believed she was allergic to the concept."

And Liz had been dead certain Lakshmi didn't live through time linearly the way normal people did. Gods existed on a very different level, and X had the feeling further discussions with Nita about that sort of thing would be very interesting.

X looked over at Nita as they walked, brow furrowed. "Clip shows? I don't know what that means."

And here he thought their worlds were more similar than others.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Pieces of different videos all pasted together, basically. Usually they're supposed to imply some wider narrative, but with visions? Not a guarantee."

Then the first part of what X said hit her.

"Husband?"

[psituational]

X's expression became all bemused curiosity. "When you see visions of the future, they play out in your mind like videos -- ?"

Nita cut him off before he could finish the question properly, and X was forcibly reminded of what Liz told him years before. He briefly considered answering carefully, and then decided that was disrespectful to Luci.

"Yes," he said, simply and cheerfully. "Husband. He's not here, I'm afraid, but I'm told we return home to the moment we left."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Not like there's a screen, but close. I get more visions than audio or other senses, anyway."

She finished following up on that as best she could before the topic shift struck again.

"Oh. I... it still seems unfair, that you're split like that."

Not unlike me and Kit, put that way, she thought wryly. Though the both of them were far from considering marriage, mostly by merit of age and societal norms alone.

"How long have you been married?"

[psituational]

"I couldn't agree more," said X, still cheerful. "But it's not forever, and when I go back home, no time will have passed. If I had to be kidnapped, this was certainly the kinder way to do it."

He was pretty sure he hadn't imagined Nita's surprise, but she recovered quickly, and seemed genuinely curious. That was better than X had been led to expect, and there was a certain warmth in his cheerful smile when he answered her question.

"Eight years, when I first came here."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita gave a low whistle. She didn't quite know how long Tom Swale and Carl Romeo had known each other, but eight years was far from an insignificant timeframe all the same, even without the comparison.

"And you've been here how long? If you're okay sharing," she amended, catching the phrasing of her own question.

[psituational]

"I don't mind at all," X said. "It's been over a year now." Maybe less than that, if you didn't count the month that X spent in a coma, but that didn't really strike X as a good thing to bring up during an initial meeting.

Over a year. X felt the familiar pang of loss in his gut, and moved to change the subject. He couldn't do anything about getting home, and that didn't give him any leverage for dealing with the feelings.

"What about you?" he asked, turning his gaze on Nita. "You sound like you're still getting used to all of this."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita shifted in place; the crowd had resumed its regular currents, though they were still in its way.

Her look in turn was sympathetic.

"Yeah," she admitted, "But I've been a fish out of water before. I've gotten experience having to find my own way, make my own plans - or at least friends."

And the latter could be more helpful than anyone could imagine.

[psituational]

"Friends can be a big help," X agreed with a nod and a smile. "I'm happy to help you, if there's anything you're still confused or concerned about. If not, then... well, I suppose I can be a quiet friend. I should warn you, though, I might have to intervene again if it looks like you, or... someone you're talking to needs help."

His smile turned teasing, and it came accompanied with an affectionate and amused huff.

This happens in my 'first talk' threads more often than it probably should... |D

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita gave him the most heartfelt smile she'd had that day.

"Thanks. Hopefully I'll be snapping at people less as I adjust..."

Though, whether she'd even be here for a full year, she couldn't say - and wasn't sure she wanted to.

And then she realizes something:

"Wait, we don't even know each other's names! I am so sorry."

She holds out her hand - partway, in case X prefers something different.

"I'm Nita. Nita Callahan."

hahahahahaha tell me about it

[psituational]

X shakes his head, laughing. "You don't need to apologise! That's how you know a conversation's gotten interesting."

Nita Callahan. X shakes her hand without hesitation. "It's good to meet you, Nita Callahan," he says warmly. "I'm X. Just X, no last name."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Ain't that the truth," Nita said, cheerful yet wry.

"Must make some kinds of paperwork a pain, though; no one here's bugged you by making filing errors, have they?"

[psituational]

"Filing errors, no," X answered, thoughtful. "I think most of the staff here, particularly at the Bridge, are used to strange and unfamiliar names by now. It has been a problem, but only during the occasional chaotic Dreaming periods."

Which X was happy to tell Nita more about, if she asked, but he'd refrain from it if she didn't. The Dreaming still unnerved him, and discussing it still unsettled him.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nodded, though she was frowning.

"It's good that it's not their faults, then. How have they been messed with before, though?"

Those periods of chaotic Dreaming were going to need a lot of study, she could tell.