un: enneameter | text

[noniad]

[cw: forced body transformation]

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These queries are not returning information of practical value. Are there alternate sources you may access on my behalf? No, I am not particular as to their provenance. Yes, all of the questions. Thank you, Calliope.

Comments

[slightlytaller]

You're actually one of the few that I don't mind drop in visits from.

Don't worry about it. I promise you, we've seen worse.

[noniad]

I enjoy our visits as well.

I am not an unwholesome skeleton, at least, which comes as a relief. My bones are adequate.

cw: morbid references, type moon

[slightlytaller]

I did not mean to suggest that you were unwholesome.

Just that... I've seen things that make an animated but pristine skeleton seem as innocent as a child's toy.

Feel free to stop by. I will look through my cabinets for something that might help.

[noniad]

You did not. It is a fact that some skeletons are less pleasing to behold than others.

As have I, though my upbringing privileges me in this.

I shall, when time permits, and be grateful for any aid you may offer. Until then, may I seek your advice on another matter?

[slightlytaller]

Then I suppose we both are biased on this matter.

What's troubling you? I will do my best to help.

private ∞

[noniad]

You are a teacher.

How do you go about forming a connection to your more closed off students? Those reluctant to confide in you, or trust in your good intentions?

private ∞

[slightlytaller]

In Shouto's case, I showed him my cat.

[It sounded like a joke-- however.]

For him, I had to say it directly. He's a little too innocent to understand what's unspoken.

In other situations, it was time and a steady presence. My students in London picked me out to be their teacher. It was a lecture that was listed on the scheduling catalogue every semester, and they picked me out themselves, so those circumstances are a little different.

...Is this about Kiriona? Or another matter?

[noniad]

It is about Gideon.

I suppose I hoped there might be a trick to it. It seems the consensus is that it is no different from building rapport with anyone else.

I would prefer there be a trick, even if it were one I could not master.

[slightlytaller]

I've heard stories of teachers standing on the desk and calmly eating a stick of chalk when they couldn't get the attention of their students-- everyone stopped and watched because they couldn't believe their eyes.

Not that I'm saying you need to be so dramatic. However, Gideon-- or Kiriona, whichever she wants to be called now-- might need you to do something with a little flair just so she pays notices what you're doing at all. You're a very subtle person, but she decidedly is not.

[noniad]

I think if I ate chalk she would remark it more palatable than snow leeks. She would not even be wrong.

I could recreate certain passages from the Noniad for her amusement, I suppose. Challenge her father to a duel, as seems to be the new local custom, and she might pick through my gelatinous remnants for her edification.

[slightlytaller]

That's still not engaging her directly.

If you don't mind my being bold, why not challenge her to a rap battle? Her music against your music.

[noniad]

[Ortus would smile fleetingly if he had lips to do so. His teeth remain fixed in a skinless grin.]

She is not musically inclined, nor much for lyricism, however clever her jibes may be.

I do not think there is a field of contest where a match between us would be fair. Her strengths are not mine, and my strengths are few, but I take your meaning. I must be persistent.

[slightlytaller]

Persistence... And an activity.

You know her marginally better than I do, Ortus-- but I've been watching everything with the Nine Houses unfold on the network, and it doesn't seem to me that she has many positive male figures in her life.

Just be yourself, and let her see how you do things.

[noniad]

I am sorry that such a spectacle has been made of affairs that should be kept private.

[He could care less about the Emperor's revealed faults. It hurts him to see Gideon embroiled in it, saying and doing things she may regret at his behest.]

I do not know if I am a positive figure, but I am what she has.

Thank you, Mackenzie. You have given me another avenue to pursue.

[slightlytaller]

I'm here to help anytime, Ortus. It's what friends do-- and I've become accustomed to being the Adult That Solves Problems for others.

[It was part of his role as Teacher... But he had recently told Shouto something similar. While he suspected that Ortus might be a tad older than he was, it was clear which of the two of them had a little more worldly experience. ]

I'd love to see you in less stressful circumstances sometime, too. Do you go to the shores often? Even in the winter, they're quite amazing to see.

[noniad]

I appreciate your aid, but I do not wish for you to solve my problems for me. That does not seem a reasonable expectation of you, or a true solution to the dilemma I face.

[But perhaps he is making progress, because it stings slightly to be so readily excluded from the category of Adult That Solves Problems. Once, he would have accepted that as merely his lot in life.

Complaining about it, however, would be unfair, and only prove Waver correct in his assessment of Ortus as unschooled in the solving of problems. He must prove himself through demonstration, not words alone.]

I would not mind a visit to the seaside, if the crabs are in reduced number. I have not been in some time to check.

[slightlytaller]

[It wasn't that Ortus was excluded as much as this was Waver's literal job in London. Grateful as he was to no longer be a dog to the Mages' Association for both his talents and his debts, such deeply ingrained habits were hard to shake.

That, and he saw Ortus being sucked into a game that he was particularly talented at. Dealing with frustrating, stubborn, closed minded, and otherwise ridiculous people was an unfortunate skill he had to learn-- and one that he excelled at. ]

I'm a Waker. I visit the shores regularly to look for my students. Mariana's ocean is also the closest parallel I have seen to a certain Dream that I visit at night sometimes.

I know where the safe places are.

[noniad]

Then I would look forward to such an excursion.

[It is more more pleasant now that it is cold and grey, as things should be. The vastness of the blue at the edge of the shore always made his stomach turn.]

What Dream do you speak of?

[slightlytaller]

[It took a moment for Waver to word his response. This was a private matter, one that he had really discussed beyond those who knew of his involvement in the Fourth Holy Grail War. After a moment where the '...' bubbled up repeatedly, he finally elaborated.]

A dream where I stand at the edge of a foggy sea. The mist is so thick that I can only barely catch glimpses of the sun, but I cannot see the horizon at all.

Sometimes, I'm beside Iskandar. Others, I'm watching his back as we both stand with our feet in the waters.

Still others, I'm one of many, as if I'm part of the endless battalion of brothers by bloodshed and choice, shoulder to shoulder with spear wielders, shield bearers, and bannermen.

And yet... In most of them I'm alone, with just the promise of the unknown from the sea that my King has dubbed:

Okeanos.

[noniad]

[The image Waver conjures up is evocative. Ortus can imagine it vividly as if he too stands by Waver at that lapping shore, and then, that last, mysterious word:]

A portentous dream.

Does it bring you peace, or does it unsettle you? There is a melancholy to it.

[slightlytaller]

[Ortus understood.

Of course he understood. If anyone understood the folkloric weight and symbolism of an ancient standing on the edge of the unknown-- of standing in that hero's shadow, it was someone who had dedicated his life to folklore and writing.

Despite himself, Waver smiled. ]

There's melancholy, but there's also a sense of connection. Okeanos only promises the unknown, but that's the future everyone faces.

It reminds me to keep walking forward, even if I can't even see where I'm going.

[noniad]

[Ortus wonders if the shore at the end of the River is like Okeanos.

He wonders if they discovered it, his once-companions. If they stood there as Waver speaks of, facing to the unknown, and stepped forth courageously.

He would like to think so.]

I would hear more of it when we meet by the shore.

I begin to feel a stirring of inspiration.

[slightlytaller]

Perhaps I should leave you with Okeanos, then. She's quite the muse.

I look forward to seeing you soon, Ortus.