Diablotin 3 session 55

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Session

Session date: June 25, 2017

Diablotin date:

Sylvise tries to rekindle the flame between Dorien and Nedezde... in Misery's presence

<DiablotinNarrator> Dorien, you're over at your parents' house for some reason... maybe dinner, free food is always good ;)

<Dorien> (nom nom nom)

<Dorien> (Just me?)

<DiablotinNarrator> (Misery can be there if you'd like :)

<Dorien> (Would they have invited her?)

<DiablotinNarrator> (yes)

<Dorien> (Sylvise probably would at least )

<Dorien> (Ok :) )

<DiablotinNarrator> (yup your mom would say she's welcome to come :)

• Sylvise will make small talk about how things are going lately, the weather, whatever ;)
• Dorien will talk to them about how business is going.

<Sylvise> That sounds wonderful, dear :) We're so proud of you.

<Dorien> Well, it's a start :)

<Dorien> I couldn't have done it without Misery's help.

• Dorien squeezes her hand
• Misery smiles and squeezes back

<Sylvise> Oh, do you know who I saw yesterday when I was at the library?

<Dorien> Who?

<Sylvise> That nice elven girl you used to see - Nedezde? Am I pronouncing that right?

• Dorien chokes slightly on wine.
• Misery gives you a look

<Dorien> Nedezde is here?

<Dorien> In Diablotin?

<Sylvise> Well it seems like it! She was at the Castalia library yesterday checking out some books. I said hello, but I'm not sure if she remembered who I was.

<Dorien> Wow... um... I haven't seen her since I was 16.

<Sylvise> Oh, well, once I told her I was Dorien's mother, she remembered you :)

<Dorien> Oh... so you... talked to her?

<Sylvise> A little, yes.

<Dorien> Did she say what brought her back here?

<Sylvise> I presume her studies - she said she was taking some courses at the Castalia. You know, she hardly has an accent, you can barely notice it at all!

<Dorien> -_-

<Dorien> She grew up here, mother...

<Sylvise> Oh, well, yes, I know that, but she's been off in foreign parts for so long I thought she might have forgotten her Aveyronnais. But apparently not!

<Misery> So this is an old girlfriend of yours?

• Misery asks with a slight smirk
• Dorien glances at his dad a bit sheepishly.

<Dorien> Yes. Although certain parties on both sides didn't exactly approve of it.

<Jerard> I wouldn't have thought her father would allow her to come back here, after all that.

<Dorien> She's older than me, father. I'm sure she can make her own decisions.

<Jerard> Well, don't they have all sorts of strict rules about obeying your elders and so on? You know - I can understand where they're coming from...

<Dorien> She was never the most ardent adherent to that rule, if I recall.

<Dorien> Besides, I'm sure her being here has nothing to do with me.

<Sylvise> Perhaps her father's changed his mind about the dangers of a human city. She wasn't with a chaperone or anything like that.

<Dorien> Well, Diablotin's not the safest place in the world, but I'm sure she can take care of herself. Especially at the Castalia.

<Sylvise> Well in any case, she said she was staying at the Mirableu, that's quite a nice hotel - I don't know if that means she's only staying here for a short while, or if she's just got the money to stay there indefinitely.

<Dorien> Huh... well, her father was an ambassador. I'm sure she can afford it.

<Dorien> Did she... say anything else?

<Sylvise> Oh, well, she asked if you were doing well, and I told her about your new business.

• Dorien nods.

<Dorien> Did she happen to mention what she was here to study?

<Sylvise> No, but her books were mostly about interplanar things? all very abstract and philosophical, you know.

<Dorien> ...huh...

<Sylvise> I thought she was an alchemist, so it seemed like a bit of a switch. But you know, elves live so long, maybe they need to study a lot of different things so they don't get bored.

<Misery> <m>...we do get bored easily...

• Misery says under her breath

<Dorien> Yeah, she was a better alchemist than me. Which - before you say it, Mis - I guess isn't saying a lot, but still.

• Misery chuckles

<Dorien> She always did have kind of a fascination with more abstract stuff.

<Dorien> Well, thanks for letting me know, mother. Saves me the shock if I run into her somewhere.

<Sylvise> I'm sure she'd be delighted to see you again. I mean, they don't get very emotional, elves, but you could tell.

<Dorien> Mother...

<Dorien> That's not...

<Dorien> Never mind.

<Dorien> Wait... you could tell what?

<Sylvise> Could tell that she wanted to see you, of course. I don't mean to say she's still carrying a torch after all these years - although with elves, maybe it seems shorter? - but just that she was interested in how you were doing.

<Dorien> Gods, Mother...

<Misery> I don't know, maybe we should pay her a visit, Dorien :)

• Dorien looks at Misery.

<Dorien> o.O

• Misery says in a mischievous voice that you can tell she's putting on particularly to fuck with your mother ;p

<Dorien> Well... ummm... hey, so... is there coffee?

<Jerard> YES.

• Jerard will promptly get that :p

<Sylvise> Oh well that would be nice, I'm sure you'd get along - you know, she's a lot like you, Misery - well not a *lot* like you, but ...

• Sylvise will get distracted with serving dessert and mercifully drop this subject

<Dorien> <w> oh for fuck's sake...

<Dorien> <w to Misery> I am SO sorry...

<Misery> <w> don't be, now I want to meet this girl

<Dorien> <w> ...really?

• Misery eyes you

<Dorien> Oh.

<Misery> <w> if she's come here to study planar stuff, that might be ... relevant to your interests.

<Dorien> <w> Possibly. I'm sure it's probably a coincidence.

<Misery> <w> pft you didn't think I was going to offer you a threesome with your ex before I even meet her, did you? ;)

<Dorien> <w> ...no?

<Misery> <w> I do have some standards, amazingly ^-^

<Dorien> Well, you ARE dating me.

• Misery laughs

<Dorien> <w> well, maybe we should look her up this weekend.

• Misery nods

Genevriel asks Sylvise about the Claars

• Genevriel has invited Sylvise and Jerard over to her and Madds' flat for tea one weekend afternoon.
• Sylvise will gladly come and drag her husband along.
• Sylvise is happy to get a chance to see what you've done with the place :)
• Genevriel spent the day tidying (not that there's much tidying to do, between two people with rigid military training on tidiness) and baking.
• Sylvise admires the place and particularly your balcony garden :)
• Genevriel is proud of her little garden and waxes about the plants growing there for a bit.

<Sylvise> You've really done a lovely job - your mother and father would be so proud :)

• Genevriel ducks her head and tries not to process mixed feelings of sadness and happiness.

<Genevriel> These are the olive shoots we brought back from Psyra... I lost a couple, but these seem to be doing all right.

• Sylvise nods

<Sylvise> will you have to bring them in during the winter?

• Genevriel nods, smiling slightly.

<Genevriel> Madds hasn't fully thought through what it will mean in the winter in coming years.

<Genevriel> We might have to push through branches to find the chesterfield.

<Sylvise> Well, perhaps by the time they get larger, you'll have a house with a yard, and can build a greenhouse for them :)

• Genevriel shrugs, having learned that the future is completely unpredictable.

<Genevriel> More likely I'll have to donate them to the Menagerie.

<Sylvise> Or maybe there's a place for them at your new workplace - how is that going?

<Genevriel> It's going all right, thanks for asking.

<Genevriel> I seem to be performing acceptably so far.

<Sylvise> Oh I'm sure you're more than acceptable :)

• Genevriel shrugs, not interested in speculating on how valuable or useless an employee she is. ^-^

<Genevriel> We had a visit from Mme Claar this week.

<Genevriel> Inspecting her... ah... investment, I suppose.

<Sylvise> Oh really?

• Genevriel nods.

<Genevriel> I guess she knew my parents; they were all at the Castalia at the same time.

<Genevriel> Did you know her, too?

<Sylvise> Suzetta Claar? Well, yes, I knew her. Of course she's a little younger, but she started at the Castalia very young - I don't know if it was her gifts or her father's money, but she was certainly bright.

• Sylvise says with a little... reservation, perhaps?

<Genevriel> What was she like back then?

• Genevriel hopes Sylvise might provide some insight into the reservation she is detecting...

<Sylvise> Very keen, clever, always eager, the first with the answer when the professor would ask a question...

<Sylvise> I had the impression she had been quite sheltered, but that would make sense, as wealthy as her family was. She didn't make friends very easily.

• Genevriel nods, listening.

<Sylvise> And she was an only child, too - university was her first chance to really interact with other people her own age, I think.

<Genevriel> Noble kids don't get to play with other noble kids?

• Genevriel asks wryly.

<Sylvise> Well... I think they lived out in the countryside, and didn't come into the city often. And her father was... well, is, I suppose, he's still alive... quite reclusive.

<Genevriel> Oh - any rumours why?

<Sylvise> Well, as I heard it, his wife died when their daughter was born, and he never really recovered from her loss. But that's just the kind of thing people say... you know, I think he wasn't especially sociable even before that.

<Sylvise> He was a scholar too, supposedly - very brilliant, very eccentric. But I never met him of course. That was just what I heard, and with a daughter like her, it wouldn't surprise me.

• Genevriel nods.

<Genevriel> What are their research interests, do you know?

• Genevriel knows what Suzetta Claar's into, or thinks she does, but what does the rest of the world know? And what gets Claar Sr. excited?

<Sylvise> Well, I seem to recall she took a lot of classes in the sciences - chemistry, biology, botany of course - alongside her studies in sorcery. Not a lot of people do both, so that was quite remarkable at the time.

• Genevriel nods

<Sylvise> I really have no idea what her father's interests were.

<Genevriel> I wonder if he ever published anything?

<Genevriel> I could look into it, I suppose.

<Genevriel> Well, Madds is probably running short on ways to entertain Oncle Jerard; should we rejoin the gentlemen?

<Sylvise> Oh, yes - we shouldn't keep them waiting :)

• Sylvise will head inside to join the men for tea

Solos

Genevriel talks metaphysics with Xandhil while she tries to avoid meeting Madds' family

• Genevriel looks like a woman with a purpose as she strides, wide-eyed with terror, away from the gathering notables of the Empire.

<Genevriel> (What that purpose is might be harder to determine, unless it is simply "away".)

• Xandhil is sitting on a sofa in a little alcove hidden behind fomr pillars that Gen may have spotted when she came in
• Genevriel moves from isolated nook to isolated nook like a worker bee pollinating flowers, chased out of each one as the room continues to fill with guests.
• Genevriel ends up eventually in your alcove.
• Genevriel takes a deep breath and then notices you.

<Genevriel> Oh, sorry...

• Genevriel makes as if to move on.
• Xandhil looks up, started out of his thoughts

<Xandhil> oh, hi

<Xandhil> It's Gen, right?

• Genevriel does a small double take as she recognizes you.
• Genevriel nods.

<Genevriel> And you're the son. Of Mr. Orecalo.

<Xandhil> uh, well, I'm one of them, anyway

<Genevriel> You pulled us out of the First World.

<Genevriel> He has more?

<Xandhil> Three!

<Genevriel> Oh.

• Genevriel is surprised; he hadn't seemed very much like a family man. That would be rude to say out loud, though.

<Xandhil> but anyway, yes, that was me.

<Xandhil> well NO

<Xandhil> I mean techncially I didn't have to pull you out, Eranthis did it

<Xandhil> But we came looking, anyway

<Genevriel> Yes.

<Genevriel> ...

<Xandhil> that seems like ages ago @_@

<Genevriel> You don't happen to be able to open a portal right here, right now, do you?

<Xandhil> hah

<Xandhil> I can only teleport myself, I'm afraid

<Xandhil> I mean if you're *really* desperate I can can take us out of here via the Shadow plane, but that will take us a few hours, and the city on the other side of here is cursed ;p

• Genevriel looks disappointed.

<Genevriel> Well, then, do you happen to know where the ladies' room is? Maybe I can get lost trying to find it.

<Xandhil> hah

<Xandhil> uh, somwhere past the tapestries to the right?

<Genevriel> Although then there will probably be guards, wondering what I'm doing. When really all I'm doing is getting lost.

<Xandhil> I have a spare book if you want to escape that way

<Genevriel> What is it?

<Xandhil> uh, theories of divine magic?

<Xandhil> okay maybe not everyone's cup of tea

<Xandhil> >.>

<Genevriel> No, no, that could be quite useful.

• Genevriel sounds serious.

<Xandhil> oh?

<Xandhil> are you a student?

<Genevriel> I can do it. Divine magic. Somehow.

<Genevriel> I'm not a priest, though.

<Xandhil> huh...

<Xandhil> oh.... Right, you said somethign about my father, and I borrowed it form him, so that makes sense :p

<Xandhil> I was hoping it would talk more about that sort of thig but is is mostly about clerics of the wheel who manifested relationships with theor gods before undergoing formal study

<Genevriel> He's been trying to help me figure out what I am.

<Xandhil> still interesting though

<Genevriel> I haven't seen him in a long while, though.

• Xandhil passes it over

<Genevriel> I probably should.

• Genevriel accepts it gratefully and cracks it open.

<Xandhil> he's been really busy

<Genevriel> So have I.

<Xandhil> seems like it is going around

• Xandhil will let you read though, if it seems like that's what you would like to do
• Genevriel tries, but is very jumpy, looking up at every sound of a person passing close by.

<Xandhil> Are you okay?

• Xandhil asks the second time you almost jump out of your skin because a sevant wander by carryign a tray towards where there are actually people

<Genevriel> I came with Madds. It's the sort of thing one does, for the people who make your life tolerable, right?

<Xandhil> If you really ned to get out of here, I can help

<Xandhil> oh... yes

<Genevriel> He didn't mention his family would be here. I should have figured that out.

<Genevriel> But I didn't, and I haven't met them yet.

• Xandhil looks sympathetic

<Xandhil> well, if any of them show up I can send them away. Introverts corner only :p

• Genevriel smiles faintly, still looking kind of panicked in the eyes.

<Genevriel> I haven't studied, formally. Not really. Lathra's helped me a bit.

• Xandhil nods

<Genevriel> So maybe I am a little like these clerics.

<Xandhil> well, the impression I got from reading that, anyway, is that a lot of it is more intuotive than learned, but the church has sort of.... figured out the best ways to help people develop that intuition

• Genevriel nods, licking her lips.

<Xandhil> and that it is more about the relaionshp to the gods.... or whatever the power source, anyway

<Genevriel> Yes, intuition. It feels like that.

<Xandhil> So for clerics, they pray, and they ask for specific spells, and as they grow more powerful they are able to channel more powerful magics

<Xandhil> but there are other ways to open that channel than through the gods

<Xandhil> which is how the Cozovode priests do it

<Genevriel> How do they do it?

<Xandhil> instead of using the gods as a conduit, they've learned to access it directly

<Xandhil> meditation, mostly

<Xandhil> they folow a regiment of pretty strict bodily purity rules, but it is hard to say how much of that is really necesary

<Xandhil> but the way their magics express is really similar, from what I understand, to clerics of the wheel

<Genevriel> I'm not sure that I'm like them. I do ask for healing.

<Xandhil> in terms of power, how much they can channel per day, and the variability of how that is expressed

<Xandhil> right

<Genevriel> But then again, maybe I wouldn't have to ask for it. Maybe it's an affectation to make me feel better.

<Xandhil> I've been thinking about this a lot, for my own personal reasons

<Xandhil> I think there's other ways that gods can give people access to those kinds of power

<Xandhil> but its more, hmm, crude in some ways. Not as flexible, because it isn't as open, or as practiced

<Xandhil> like, some of the clerics that Hauvard talks aboutm when they are first found they can only case the same few spells, but that's partly because they just don't know what's available

• Genevriel nods, hesitant.

<Xandhil> but they also don't know all the tricks to harnessing that intuition.... but they can learn it, because the gods can help them mediate that power in those specific ways

<Xandhil> and I mean, I think the gods have the system, they don't need an active part necessarily

<Xandhil> but I think they can also say.... here is another route, but we're not going to help you other than just opening this door

<Xandhil> the rest is up to you

<Xandhil> and you're drawing on the same kind of power, but it isn't necessarily from them

<Xandhil> maybe >.>

<Genevriel> I've never really thought about what I can or can't do. I've just... seemed to know?

<Xandhil> right

<Xandhil> it's instinct

<Xandhil> but - guided instinct, maybe

<Genevriel> Except for the Pleasant Dreams spell.

<Genevriel> That one I was taught.

<Xandhil> if you know what you can pick from, you can sort of reach for what you want to take

<Xandhil> I mean, I don't know if what I am talking about is anything like your case

<Xandhil> I barely know what I am talking about at all, so take it with a grain of salt

• Xandhil says, with the look of someone who has a lot of thoughts that he hasn't been able to follow up on
• Genevriel nods.

<Genevriel> Sorry, I must be disturbing you with my presence.

<Xandhil> oh, no.... it's really loud anyway ans I'm told it is rude to cast Silence :p

<Xandhil> it's nice to sort of talk it out, anyway

<Xandhil> Justen just nods and looks concerned :p

<Xandhil> . o O (Or distracts me >.>)

<Genevriel> Justen? One of your brothers?

• Genevriel frowns, trying to remember, that doesn't seem right.
• Xandhil makes a midly disturbed face, and then laughs

<Xandhil> No, ah, no.

<Xandhil> He's my... partner

<Genevriel> Oh.

<Xandhil> He was the other one, in the first world

• Genevriel smiles.

<Xandhil> the redhead

<Genevriel> I remember him now. Vaguely.

<Xandhil> I wasn't sure how clearly everyone remember what happened

<Genevriel> He's very handsome.

<Xandhil> yes :)

<Genevriel> I remember Vreel pretty clearly.

• Xandhil agrees enthusiastically

<Genevriel> Vreel didn't remember me, though.

<Genevriel> I'm not sure how that all worked.

<Xandhil> me either

<Xandhil> I think the going theory is that it had somethign to do with how Amanita pulled you all in

<Genevriel> And I guess there might actually be a Vreel living on in the First World, so she isn't actually me. Or she is, and we're all just facets of the same soul inhabiting all the different worlds.

<Xandhil> Well, Clovani is still in ice briar, but I guess he didn't come back through the portal anyway

<Xandhil> so I don't know that it adds much in terms of figuring out what happened

• Genevriel nods.

<Genevriel> We were just in the First World again. Eletheni joined us for a while.

<Genevriel> Hugo seemed to enjoy that.

<Xandhil> oh?

<Xandhil> where?

<Genevriel> We went to rescue someone from the Weeping Woods.

<Genevriel> She wouldn't go in there.

<Genevriel> And I wasn't Vreel; I was me.

• Xandhil nids

<Xandhil> well it is definitely possible to travel there and remain yourself, I think what happened before was an anomaly

<Xandhil> Even without the irminsul

<Xandhil> was your rescue successful?

<Genevriel> It was. We brought him and another back with us.

<Genevriel> Have you heard of any Irminsuls sprouting up anywhere since the one in the Shade was destroyed?

<Xandhil> oh, it isn't destroyed

<Xandhil> it's sill there

<Xandhil> it's just not infected anymore

<Xandhil> and it is working fine

<Xandhil> We;ve been through there a few times now

<Genevriel> Oh, I hadn't realized.

<Genevriel> I don't spend much time anywhere except work or at home, I guess.

• Xandhil smiles

<Xandhil> it is work for me, or at least people are willing to pay me for it

• Genevriel smiles a little.

<Genevriel> Do you think it might be possible for someone to... control an Irminsul? Get it to grow so that it leads to a specific plane?

<Genevriel> I think usually it's anyone's guess which plane an Irminsul will lead to.

<Xandhil> well, that's what the Kaorti were trying to do

<Xandhil> oh.....

• Xandhil looks annoyed
• Genevriel looks curious.

<Xandhil> I shoudl have asked about that, damnit

<Xandhil> but yes, absolutely, that is possible

<Xandhil> not *easy*

<Xandhil> but possible

<Xandhil> I thik it goes back to how the first world was first breached - an irminsul was created for that

<Xandhil> they connect the first world to all other planes, or at least the inner ones

<Xandhil> like the arch

<Xandhil> I'm pretty sure they are the modle for the arch, really

<Genevriel> The Arch is... an Irminsul?

<Xandhil> no.

<Xandhil> the arch is like.... a nexus.

<Xandhil> things pass into the center through the arch, and from there they can be routed to other places, potentiallly

<Xandhil> because arches connect the center to everywhere else

<Genevriel> Oh...

<Genevriel> The centre as in The Centre?

<Xandhil> the irminsuls connect the first world directly to other planes

<Xandhil> yes

<Genevriel> No wonder people go mad.

<Xandhil> I rthink there's more to it than that

• Xandhil thinks, then shrugs

<Genevriel> Have you ever come across any mentions of a "One" entity?

<Xandhil> I don't knwo if the center is ...inherently unhinging

<Xandhil> not unless you are talking about Serpent

<Genevriel> I don't think it's Serpent, and neither do Silvia or Sirris

<Xandhil> then I don't know

• Xandhil seems curious though
• Genevriel nods.

<Xandhil> I mean I geuss there are a lot of powerful entities out there

<Xandhil> hmm

<Genevriel> I sometimes wonder if it's the Hub.

<Xandhil> what do you know about it?

<Genevriel> I mean, if Serpent is the rim, and Wolf and the rest are the spokes.

<Genevriel> Virtually nothing.

<Xandhil> I don't knwo of the Center is really a...sentient thing separate from Serpent

<Genevriel> Well, I'll let you know if I ever figure it out.

<Xandhil> thanks

<Genevriel> Thank you for ofeering mr asylum in this small corner of the room.

<Xandhil> well, you;re welcome - thanks for letting me ramble about metaphysics

<Xandhil> it's given me some things to think about

<Genevriel> I'm very interested in metaphysics. Madds used to be, but is less so now. So, if you ever want to chat about them again, I'd welcome the opportunity.

<Xandhil> thanks! Likewise

<Xandhil> feel free to drop by my office if we don't run inti each other hiding at parties

<Genevriel> Thanks.

• Genevriel smiles.