ioduanlogs | [EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

Characters: ALL
Date: January 15
Location: At the Dreaming Bridge and all over Aifaran!
Situation: A large influx of Dreamfolk arrive in time for one of the Lunar Festivals, and they're all invited!
Warnings/Rating: N/A

A surprising amount of Dreamfolk have arrived within a short time frame - a peculiarity remarked upon by a number of Aifaran's residents. It is unusual in that it coincides with a lunar festival, one which only happens every fifty or so years.

Newcomers will find the streets packed with all sorts of people, stalls of fried and sugared foods, carnivalesque games and rides, and all other manner of things to do. Merchants are very keen to get their wares out there, and the stipend given may just burn a hole in your pocket when you see what's for sale.

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As someone who's resided in a big city, buildings don't seem remarkable to Chase, so he doesn't remark on that, nor the turn-out at the festival.

The bit about the sky, however...

He looks up, instantly, having not thought to do so before someone had mentioned it. "I see it."

He looks back down. "Does it bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me!"

Naesala turns to face him, hands on his hips. "Bad enough I'm somewhere so unfamiliar there's no landscapes I recognize, no way of orienting myself. Now there's a... something up there that might even block my view of the stars. If you had wings, you might understand how jarring it is to even have the sky telling you that you aren't even on the same world."

He looks up again. It doesn't look to him like the stars will be blocked if the sky is coming through so clearly, but, like Naesala says, he doesn't have wings.

"You are homesick."

...So is Chase, if he's recognized the feeling, but he opts not to say so.

"Is it really so different?"

Naesala scowls, shaking out his wings with an audible rustling sound. Was it true...? Perhaps. He hadn't thought he'd been here long enough to feel such a thing.

"Yes, it is different. I'm not sure about being homesick, but I had... an important matter at home I hadn't yet resolved. It's frustrating to have been ripped away before it was completely settled."

Naesala then turns a considering look at him, "But what of you? Are you quite so happy to be here?"

Frustration...that's the word for it. He should have been very used to seeing that expression from seeing so many others around him express it, but somehow, it...hadn't occurred to him. Must be the different locale, or perhaps the wings are throwing him off, even though it really shouldn't.

As for him... Matters hadn't been settled at his exit, per se, but he'd made his peace with it. "Not happy. Not here. But I am not frustrated."

He turns his gaze back into the air, folding his arms. "Do you trust your companions to resolve it?"

Naesala huffs softly. "I'd quite happily let them handle it without me, but I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. I questioned the workers here when I arrived and they all reassured me that when we go home, it'll be at the same point in time when we left. I'm going to guess that no one will even realize we were missing."

And that was the kicker. Naesala didn't even have the luxury of letting everyone in his world go on without him. He couldn't run away from his problems, and right now this respite was really only leaving him in suspense of what was to come. Damn his luck!

"So far, this place looks pleasant enough on the outside. I'm not one to trust it so easily, but I suppose we'll settle in whether we want to or not."

"I...suppose." The idea that they’ll return to the moment they left is...probably why they’re called ‘Dreamfolk’. Chase has been known by a few names, but he couldn’t say that he liked having one that he didn’t understand.

But if they were brought here against their will, settling in doesn't have to be their only option. He'd say something about not giving in too quickly, but Chase isn't one to talk, and while he's thinking of his friends, he can't imitate them, so he doesn't even have the words, either.

Besides, he doesn't currently have a good idea of what 'settling in' entails, not having looked around that extensively yet.

"Does it really look pleasant?" Chase doesn't have an opinion on that, himself.

Naesala replies with a nod, "Oh, yes. It's downright scenic from up above. The festival over there has pulled in quite a large crowd, too."

He was going to have to fly around later and get a better idea of what exactly was within the city. He's sure there's some manner of slums here, he just had to find it. The poorest areas often said as much about a city as the richest ones did.

"And these people did have the resources to give us free lodging. I'm sure making a living here would be quite comfortable."

Scenic and comfortable...he supposes those are good parameters for determining that kind of thing. However— "It lacks purpose."

Though technically speaking, he'd lost his purpose before he even arrived here.

"Comfort isn't so important to me." He looks up again at the sky, then adds, "I'm Chase."

"Purpose?"

He couldn't help but laugh, giving Chase a small bow as he did so. "My name's Naesala. And if you think there's no purpose to seeing the festival, you're going about it the wrong way. How else will you learn about the residents here if you don't walk among them? See how they celebrate and how they spend their free time? You can't get the measure of a society if you sit inside all day."

But that learning...has no purpose, either. Especially if making a living here is not what those who've arrived here want. If his existence had to continue, he would have preferred it to be an existence close to the ones who gave him purpose. But really, it comes down to comfort not mattering that much to him in the long run. If it turns out that he'd have to stay for much longer than he expects...then he shall see.

"You place importance in learning the measure of a society?"

"Of course I do. They mean it when they say that knowledge is power - and not only in the direct, magic-using sense."

This human was awfully uptight, wasn't he? It was one thing to not be a fan of crowds, and quite another to not care about comfort or a fun activity. Naesala didn't think he had ever met anyone that cared so little about those things. What was this guy, a monk?

"Well, I'm not going to force you into it. After all, I'm only going to observe the culture here myself."

"Force me...?" He wouldn’t ask if he weren't curious. Naesala finds the measure of the society...Chase is finding the measure of the people—the Dreamfolk. Though he wouldn’t be able to clarify it quite like that that that’s what he’s doing; his fascination for humans (and by extension, people who act like them) is just white noise to him now.

"I wouldn't know how to do it." Certainly not at absorbing the important things and putting it together with the less important ones. Culture-watching was never a skill he'd picked up.

He was going to go observe the festival anyway, though. "I will...observe."

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[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

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