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january open post + catch-all
Who: Yona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cutefaced) & you!
What: A catch-all for January with OTA prompts and closed starter toplevels.
When: Throughout January
Where: Mainly in and around Olympia; some visits to Wyver, too.
Warning(s): Nothing yet, but I'll edit if that changes.
olympia proper;
cutefaced) & you!What: A catch-all for January with OTA prompts and closed starter toplevels.
When: Throughout January
Where: Mainly in and around Olympia; some visits to Wyver, too.
Warning(s): Nothing yet, but I'll edit if that changes.
olympia proper;
one - getting reacquainted;the outskirts;
[Before taking ill, Yona had spent much of her time in the market district - mainly because she's always been easily distracted by interesting things. As a result, she hadn't been completely familiar with other parts of the city before then, though she did make a few forays into the theater district.
No more. Now that she's back, she has every intention of learning her way around the city she and her friens have returned to.
Her wandering takes her almost everywhere - and as a result, she ends up hopelessly, uselessly lost. Maybe you'll catch her looking at her surroundings with a puzzled expression.]
...wait, was I supposed to turn right at the last street, or the next one?
[Help.]
two - weapons galore;
[You must never touch weapons, Yona.
Her father's words are fresh in her mind as she stands outside the weapons shop. Of course - she's already disobeyed him once, when practicing throwing daggers. But she can only keep "borrowing" from Jae-Ha and sneaking them back to him for so long, and they're his weapons, in the end; she needs to find something that suits her.
Sooner or later, she was always going to have to look out for herself.
So in she goes, although she nearly immediately looks a bit overwhelmed at all the different choices. Oh boy.]
There's so many of them...
three - order up;
[She can't just rely on other people to buy her things forever (although to be truthful, it's worked for her so far).
So, not long after they return to Olympia, Yona starts looking for work. Her problem is there aren't a lot of things she already knows how to do well - but part-time work serving food at a cafe seems simple enough, and she's managed to get a job as a waitress at the Wyvernest, which suits her just fine. One of the most interesting things about Wyver was the dragons, after all.
Now she's sort of got the best of both worlds - she can see the baby dragons while she's working, and can learn about them as she does. (The owner doesn't rebuff her when she asks for employment as some others have, but maybe that's because they remember she wore a Wyver pin at the gala. Maybe they think she knows more about dragons than she actually does.)
But at the moment? It's time to serve some customers! Yona looks up when she hears the door open and fixes the person who's just entered with a smile.]
Welcome to the Wyvernest! How many would you like a table for today?
one - neutrality problems;a visit to wyver;
[The first time she borrows a mount to go exploring, she runs into some of the people who have left the city.
...up until that moment, she hadn't realized just how bad things had gotten. Sure, there were people who were vocal about wanting to keep themselves separate from the people of Wyver, and people who were talking about fighting with them... but she'd believed it was just talk. After all, when she'd gotten sick, the medicine that had cured her had only existed because they'd cooperated with them.
But, no. Apparently it is that bad. And when she hears that people on both sides have been refused help from the Sanctuary and the Altar of Volkkra...
Well, she can't take it. She really can't take it.
So, from time to time, she ventures out from the city on a mount for a "picnic," though what she's got packed is more along the lines of simple food for traveling, cloth cut into bandages, and other things she's managed to purchase with her earnings from the Wyvernest cafe. Some days, when she's gotten especially good tips, she has a little more.
Some days, when business has been slow, she's got a little less.
Either way, she's trying. And she could probably use a little help... be it with passing things out to people who need them, or actually providing effective medical assistance, or not getting mugged or attacked by wild animals or something.]
two - edrathe ruins;
[Is it foolish to be out here? Probably. Is that going to stop her from looking around? Probably not.
...except it really should have, because enough time has passed that Yona's borrowed mount has decided to head back to the stables and has definitely left her behind. She's wandering around near the entrance now, unsure if she's actually where she left it or if she's just gotten terribly turned around.]
Hello?
[...there's that strange rumbling noise; she jolts, then glances over her shoulder.]
Is someone here...?
one - dragonwatching;wildcard;
[No amount of tension is going to keep Yona out of Wyver - for the time being, anyway. But even she's not that stupid; when she does take off for the hotter country, about midway through the month, she at least has the sense to change the style of clothing she's wearing and smooth down her hair. It's perhaps not the most effective disguise she could have gone with, but at least when her hair reverts back to its usual frizzy state, she can use that as an excuse -
It couldn't have been me you saw! Do you really think I could get my hair to look like that?
Et cetera, et cetera.
Anyway, now that she's back in Wyver, she's going to be visiting some friends - but she's also going to be taking the time to go observe some fully-grown dragons. ...from a distance, of course; she doesn't want to be eaten. Still.
There's no small amount of admiration in her eyes as she watches them.]
They really are amazing...!
two - lagoons;
[Before she goes back to Olympia, she has to stop at the lagoons. Has to. There's no two ways about it. They're one of the things she enjoyed most about the jungle country, and she doesn't know when she'll get the chance to bathe in them again.
The public bathhouses in Olympia are perhaps a little more elegant, but the lagoon has its charm, too.
For now, Yona lounges in one of the public pools, her hair fanning out across the surface of the water and preserving her modesty. But ultimately, a bath is a bath. There's a time and a place for being naked; this is one of them.
So she doesn't really think twice about it when she catches sight of someone's feet at the water's edge - she waves them over with a smile.]
Come in, the water's great!
[If none of the above works for you, just hit me with whatever! I just ask that you let me know when and where it's happening; I can come up with a justification for Yona to be wherever you'd like. Alternatively, hit me up by PM or athungriest and I'll be glad to write a personalized starter for you.]
no subject
[There's really no reason he has to be a dog. They could go out with him as himself. He's not sure whether Yona even considers this as an option, but... eh, he won't complain. It means he less likely to run into someone who might recognize him.]
[And so he poofs!! into a cute little doggie again.]
You should be careful not to exhaust yourself too much. Overwork is poison for the mind -- your ability to use magic for longer periods of time will grow over time, but you shouldn't try to force it either!
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Hence the suggestion that he be a dog.
...also now she's petting him, so that's her real ulterior motive here.]
But how am I supposed to improve if I don't push past my limits? If I just keep doing what I can do instead of trying things I can't, I'll never get better.
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Pushing your limits and pushing yourself to the extremes are different. It's normal to feel a bit tired, but if you ever find yourself feeling dizzy or lightheaded, you should stop and find something to eat or take a nap to help your body recharge!
[Much like when he didn't let her practice when she was ill -- he honestly doesn't know what could happen if she exhausted herself too much with magic. She might even die -- and that would just be a waste!]
As your teacher, it's my responsibility to ensure you don't do something to hurt yourself.
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...that makes sense, I guess...
[Yona sighs. She knows it's better to do as he says. He's her teacher; he knows best. But she can't help but feel a little impatient, regardless. She'll stubbornly keep at it until she succeeds, and she knows it will take time, but...]
...I just wish I could pick it up faster.
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...of course, there are methods of gaining powerful new abilities instantly. But I don't think they would suit you.
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[They might not suit her, but she can't help but be curious about it anyway. Mephisto has to have expected this by now.]
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Why, making a contract with a demon, of course! The desire for power is one of the simplest ways men fall to demons -- depending on the strength of the demon in question, even a person with no prior experience with magic can become quite powerful almost instantaneously.
Naturally, I receive many such benefits from my familiars! Not that I wasn't already rather skilled in magic beforehand, of course.
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[He probably expected that, too.]
If I master this, I want it to be because I'm good at it, not because I had to ask a demon to make me good at it.
[...she says, to her demon teacher.]
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Fufu, I did say it wouldn't suit you. But it's for the best, really. Demons tend to ask for far too much when making contracts with those who seek power.
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[Cheerful gala conversation.]
He said that if you make a contract with a demon, you'll fall into hell when you die. And if you survive that fall, you become a demon yourself. [She tilts her head to one side.] That's not how it works where you come from, is it?
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[KILL BILL SIRENS]
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[They met once. They danced. They're friends now. She's not outing him to Mephisto.]
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even more than usualand find out who that friend is SIGHS][But okay, he feels a little silly having this conversation as a dog, and with a poof, he's himself again -- leaning against the wall a short distance away, fixing his expression into something bordering on offended. "Faust" would probably be offended, given the implication going unsaid.]
Those who are more religiously inclined may believe in something like that. If a human were to become possessed by a demon, then by all appearances, they would seem to become one.
But the simple act of making a contract wouldn't result in such a thing, unless it were stipulated in that contract. There are, after all, those who would thirst so much for power that they would even sell their own soul for it.
no subject
Then... what's the difference between losing your soul to a demon and falling into hell? It sounds almost like the same thing...
[Or rather, they both sound pretty unpleasant.]
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...that's not exactly a question I can answer. But "hell" as it exists in my world is no place for humans. It's simply the name given to the realm from which all demons originate, be they evil or benevolent.
Though there's naturally little research on such things, in theory, a human who loses their soul to a demon would either be removed from the cycle of reincarnation, or lose their place in the afterlife-- depending on what you personally choose to believe in.
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Reincarnation or the afterlife, huh...
[Yona hasn't given it that much thought in a while - not since her mother died when she was a child, anyway. She's been distracting herself by getting involved in as many things as she can to avoid thinking about what might have happened to the people from Kouka who weren't rescued by the Natha.
But now she kind of wonders...]
What do you believe in?
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[It's also one he doesn't have an answer for, since he already knows what happens to demons when they die (and maybe what happens to humans?? itsamystery.mp3).]
[So he'll tease instead -- the subject is a bit dark, but hopefully his tone lets her know he's not being serious.]
And I don't know if I even want to tell that to someone who not even two minutes ago was a few breaths away from accusing me of sending myself to hell... honestly, I hope you haven't been worrying about that since the Gala!
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—that's not what I meant! [But with him having said that, she can see how it might have sounded that way.] I was pretty sure he didn't come from the same place you do, because the way he described demons sounded a little different. I just wondered if there was anything about it that was similar...
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[He figures it's a mix of both, probably -- but hopefully they're just some religious fanatic and not an exorcist, or else he'll have to be more careful when appearing around Yona's friends.]
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[She taps a finger to her bottom lip, considering it.]
It's interesting that so many different places have some of the same concepts, though.