45. Party People / Jam Session
General Summary
May 26 Session
Mika hasn’t heard you talk about tattoos before; it was just you and Julius when you made the "not what I thought I'd get" remark. So he's not super surprised but it's like yay, new Marwa lore. Feels like he knew you pretty well but he's still learning new things about you all the time and every instance is a goddamn delight.
Eli nods along as you talk.
"Lightning's fun, you can do all kinds of stuff with that. Make it branch out to mimic another shape, if you show it striking you can play with the impact. Any particular reason or just like the look?"
I hold my palm up, the one that's not holding my drink, and you can hear a low crackle and see a flash of electricity spark off my hand.
"Buddy, I am lightning." And I smile big
His eyes widen a little, and he's got a 'damnthatscool' kind of face, there's a beat, and then his eyes flick to Mika with a knowing smirk and Mika glares, not actual angry but like, "oh fuck off" kind of expression, reddening, which gets the grin of someone who was gunning for that and got it before he returns to conversation at hand
"Comes in handy for work, I bet."
"Sure does! Bet you've got a few tricks of your own though, yeah?" I raise an eyebrow at him, prompting him to show off, if he wants.
A cocky smile, "Not much applicable here -- unless of course you're down for a little competition?"
Mika looks wary, not sure what's being suggested. He's going to assume something roguelike, but also knows Eli likes this place and doesn't want to get on a ban list for it.
"Dance off? You're on. Babe, hold my drink. Unless you want to back out? No shame in saying no, you know." Said with a challenging grin.
He's slightly startled by the suggestion, because he knows that's not the kind of talent you were referencing when you said he could show off.
He can't get a read on you, answers, "That's really more his thing," he says, leaning back on the bar in a very "not going anyplace" way, nodding to Mika in deferral.
At the comment, Mika will slide off his stool in agreement. "I should make sure Nissa doesn't actually steal you, regardless."
"No worries, man. I'll catch you another time," and I grab Mika's hand and follow him out to the dance floor.
He does a little two-finger salute wave-off, sprinkle vibes of "Sure, whenever" atop it.
Mika's very happy to dance with you some more
Soon as they're far enough away that they can't be heard and it's less feasible for someone to clock a conversation from body language/faces he's gonna gently inquire, "You okay?"
"Yep. Sorry, I could have been less of a bitch. I just...got a little mad, after what he said," and my gaze drifts over his scars. "It was dumb, I'll chill out. Promise."
At first he has a genuine like "which thing" but then he can clock your eyes drifting to the side of his face, "No, it's fine. It was uncalled-for, but it wasn't... he's just like that." He sounds so, so tired.
"I was kind of expecting it, to be honest. He's pulling his punches. Don't let him get to you, ‘kay? It's bluster."
There's more he wants to say but also this is to him a weird place to discuss topics so close to the chest and also he does not want to ruin the night if further discussion starts to reveal things you might not be sympatico on, and that trepidation keeps it buttoned up.
Storm returned from the Introvert Table while you were dancing. Shiv clocks Realtalk faces between him and Eli at the bar, gives them a minute, then heads over.
Eli's still back to the bar whereas Storm's sitting normally and looking sideways, so he sees her coming.
“Shiv! Up top, short stuff.” He holds his palm out for a high five, which she grants, hopping a stool.
"Official Necromancer!"
"Yup!" Big proud grin from "short stuff"
"So it's not presumptuous anymore" an I’m-getting-at-something grin from Elijah.
Shiv is pleasantly buzzed but still together enough to clock something these two have chatted about many times before.
"My only reservation remains that it has to tie in with the thorns," she says, indicating the twisting brambles along her arms and shoulders. “Obviously. Okay this one’s bigger than you were saying, but stay with me here; you expand them down the shoulder along the back; vertical overall, transition the thorns into roots; less sharp, more twisty. Shadowed. Blend some spirits in at the bottom, maybe a few drifting upward. My first thought was wraithlike, but you could do Hebi if you wanted.”
“Hm,” she’s intrigued, looks at her arm where the violet snake winds around it. “Weird to have him in two places, though.”
“That was my thought, too. Besides, wraiths are flexible; you could have them super abstract and subtle, blended in with the shading, or pull them to the foreground and make ‘em dance on the roots. Though if you went for a corporeal scene I’d go for skeletons instead. Or both.”
Shiv’s thinking. "One condition."
Eli's turn to look intrigued. "It's literally your body and I'm not telling you what to do, but shoot."
“You have to sketch it out for me.”
He's startled. "You sure??"
“Positive.”
“You don’t want it more separate then? I don’t know about expanding off someone else’s design…” but he’s not making eye contact anymore, he’s studying her shoulder, looking at the shape and style of the thorns her snake tattoo is twisting through.
"Yeah man, it's not like you're doing the needlework, it'll be fine." He concedes the point, starting to get excited for a new project.
Shiv admits that she wants something commemorative for completing her studies and given the shared interest that they would have tossed ideas back and forth a bunch over the last while.
I think while we're out dancing, I'd check in with him to see how he's feeling. "I think I promised Shiv, and Nissa one more dance each, but you're running the show tonight. Say the word, and we're off."
He smiles, appreciative. He wants a chance to catch up with Shiv, who's been butterflying, but otherwise is good to go whenever; this has been A Lot. Also he'd mention that Beni invited them to band practice tomorrow, quickly give the rundown that he and Raj and Eli do music sometimes. He's down if she is, but it's her call.
"Sure! I love live music. We can go get dinner somewhere fun after, if you want. Make an occasion out of it."
Bigger smile. "I'd like that." He wants to catch up with Shiv, congratulate her on her effort, inquire what this means for her vis a vis the Library etc. Shiv plans to keep working there for now, she likes it, and she never had that "I gotta get outta this town" bug that he did.
I think he'd grab her at a table, plop into a seat, "I didn't get to tell you congrats yet." He gives her a big, proud smile.
"No, you didn't. I'm ready, whenever you are."
"Congratulations on not accidentally turning into a vampire, lich, ghoul, or anything else unsavoury during the course of your education. When your pallid legions march upon the city, please remember your friends."
"Thank you, and I will. Everybody here but you will have a front row seat to the carnage I unleash upon the world." And she grins ."How're you doing? Good to see you and Mirage here tonight." She can’t help a sly smirk at the Mirage mention.
"Doing all right. It's wild, seeing everyone again."
He has a self-conscious laugh when she smirks about Mirage. He says that he hopes nobody's offended that he hasn't spent much time with anyone else.
"I don't think so. The entertainment factor of seeing you walk around with heart eyes this whole time is worth it." She nudges his arm with her elbow in a teasing way. "Seriously though. Happy for you. Managed to find someone just as sappy as you, somehow."
He smiles, like he's been thinking the same thing. "Thanks, Shiv. For pushing me, too."
"Anytime."
"We're probably going to head out soon."
"Awww boo. Fine, but you'll probably miss Storm hanging from the roof again."
He laughs "Paint me a word picture when I see you next. We're in town for a little while, anyway."
"Good! We'll get coffee sometime, or deface some property or something. It'll be great."
"Oh hell yes. Keep an eye out for kindling, will you?
"You know it."
"Hard to get a blaze going on the road without starting a damn brushfire. Never saw the utility of stone before." Shiv gets a goodbye-for-now hug because she's Shiv, everyone else gets a fistbump. He does a cursory glance around for Eli but doesn't see him and kind of goes "Oh well I guess I don't have to talk to him anymore then too bad so sad can't be helped!"
The night's cool outside, mist off the harbour always gives this city a general evening fog
Mirage, in the way of all extroverts, is buzzing after the party. Made a bunch of new friends, got to dance, hang out with Shiv, win/win all around.
Mika's tired but not exhausted, just kind of at normal end-of-the-day energy levels. Mika's not got like, head-on-swivel, but he's tapped back into sensible habit of checking corners every block or so. He's less worried than he would have been pre-adventure life. Guildies don't have a reason to come after them, neither do the Shadows, and the two of them can almost certainly take random street toughs.
"You were saying earlier, about 'after.' If I'd come back here."
She turns to look at him, gives him her attention.
"I don't really have a picture of where I'll end up. Like you said, it's not something you go out and pick up at the market." He gives her a small sideways smile for the callback. "But I have been thinking, I know there's melee training, and it definitely helps, but I don't know - hm."
He's thinking, trying to organize words.
"I think I mentioned, last time we talked Wishes, how being mindful of the timeline is a concern. How I can't just wish I never ended up in this situation, because it goes too far back. If I stayed mundane, I never would have gone looking for mercenary work. I kind of still think I'm not going to be much use without it. I'm not really sure where that leaves me, to be honest."
Mirage looks like she's thinking. "Okay. First of all, can I just say that I love that you're thinking about a life post-this bullshit. Seriously. Love that for you. Second of all, not because I need to know but just because I'm curious, what's the gist of your wish thus far? If you have like, a general 'I wish for this thing to no longer exist' angle, or whatever. And third...regardless of what is and is not possible, what do you want to do? If you could shape the future exactly as you wished, what would that look like? Where would you live, what would you do for work," she hesitates for a half-breath, "who would you be with? All of it."
"Well part of that is very easy," sidestep for a little cheek smooch. "I've just been, I don't know, kind of caught up in more present concerns. The last time I had a clear picture of the future was... a long time ago. I wanted different things. Had different options. I'm overdue for an update, I guess."
"That's fair. I also get...not wanting to look too far in the future, because things in the present are so uncertain." She bites her lip as she thinks this out. "But if it helps in your considerations, just know that I'm down for pretty much anything. If I get to come with you, then I don't really care where we end up. As long as there's good coffee and you love me, what else could go wrong, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." He's smiling at you with a look like 'damn how many more blocks til the inn. Was it this long of a walk on the way there?'
I see him eyeing me and I mutter under my breath, "Just a quick one." And I yoink him by the shirt plant one on him. Gotta keep our eyes peeled for stuff, and we're in public, but he can't give me those heart eyes and expect my girl to do NOTHING.
She gets stepped back onto a wall real quick, because yea yea situational awareness but damn she's hot even when she's not speaking earnestly about wanting to be a part of his future no matter what it looks like. Sometimes there's nothing for it, you just gotta kiss the girl.
The following morning, Mika gets his mail. Mirage probably sleeps in, she's on vacation.
She wakes up to coffee smells. Mika's at the little provided table, there's a little package on it, open, and he's reading a letter. More saliently, there's a little carafe of coffee and two mugs, one of which he's sipping from with his free hand
The scent of the coffee lures me over. "Whatsis?" She mumbles
He looks up when she sits up, smiles at her while she's rubbing sleep from her eyes. She's got world-class bedhead. He has a coffee poured when she shuffles over, presses it into her hands without a word.
Once she's closer she can also smell the cookies and stuff her mom sent. "Oh fuck yes."
I start ripping into my own care package. "Heh. Did she give you socks, too? Woman is insane." Lydia sent her snacks and socks and a bunch of her favourite accessories and stuff that she had to leave for lack of bag space, some jewelry, but also like, silky summer scarves, etc.
"I'm not complaining, saves me some darning. Or, well, lets me put it off longer I guess,” he laughs. "She may have overestimated my sweet tooth though," looking at the frankly indulgent amount of chocolates, small pastries, cookies.
"Don't worry, I'll help if you need. She probably just wanted to make sure you had lots of choices."
"Do you think she'd care if I brought a bunch of this to Beni's later?"
"No, that's a great idea. As long as you get some, too. Don't give it all away!"
"Of course." "Aw did she write you a letter, too? Wonder if she did that for everyone. Mine just says to be good, and to use the sending stone more. And for us to take care of each other, but we're doing that already, so."
"She says your dad's in town."
"Right, to see Shiv graduate. Does she say how long he plans to say? We should say hi, if we have time."
He glances at the postscript again to check. "There's absolutely time. She didn't say, but presumably Shiv told him you're also here, so I assume he's not taking off first thing."
He’s staying at the Obsidian Angel Hotel Inn.
"Cool. So other than band practice, what else is on the docket for today? More library stuff?"
"Not much. Still waiting on word back from the temple. I think Beni said afternoon, so we can head over around two I guess. Still reading through my Dawnharbour loans, but I'll never say no to a visit. I never did get to show you what the reflecting room does, last time. Or the telescope," his gaze is faraway, you can tell there's a long list of shit he's realizing you didn't get to before
She sees the wheels in his head turning and is like, oh dear, I have to negotiate with this dude or we will spend the entire day there. She suggests dropping by Julius' hotel to see if he's free for lunch/coffee, "Okay, how about this. I'll caffeinate until I'm a real person, and then we'll go to the library for a few hours, and then maybe we can bug Dad for lunch? What say you?"
"Deal" is his response, accompanied by an excited grin.
He's got a jump in his step on the way to the Gatehouse. The black streets are glittery in the morning light, still damp from the night fog. Once you get onto the main street, he comments that if one added it all up, probably something close to half his life before leaving Midnight was probably spent walking to and from on this road.
Well, maybe a third, adjusting for sleep.
Then again, considering the company he kept, a lot of time was spent not sleeping. So maybe yeah, half.
"That's a lot of walking, and a lot of life!"
He laughs, "When your best friend just needs to zone out for four hours and then she's good, shit ensues, you know?"
"Makes total sense. Gotta be a full-time job to keep up with that woman."
"She's a walking shakeup, for sure." He smiles at you sideways, "Is it weird if I'm really relieved the two of you get along?"
"Haha not at all! Were you worried we wouldn't mesh well?"
He shrugs, "I don't know about worried, but it would have been kind of a bummer. I mean, she's not a perfect person any more than anyone else, nobody has to like her, but...I dunno. She's my oldest friend. She's important. I don't think it would've been a deal breaker if you didn't get along, but, y'know."
"No, I get it. She'd make for a terrifying enemy. Thankfully, she's fucking awesome."
He laughs, "I still can't believe she gave me the "if you hurt her" spiel. I mean it's not like I thought she'd tell you but that was surprising."
"I can't either, like, what the hell?! Neither of us should hurt each other! I mean on purpose, shit happens. Nobody's perfect, like you said."
"She was probably joking, honestly." He looks contemplative.
"Have there been other people who took issue with your friendship with Shiv?"
He kind of cringes. "One or two. Which, I kind of get."
"Really? I don't. Sorry that happened. You either trust someone, or you don't."
An appreciative smile, if a small one. "I'm really glad you feel that way, honestly. A guy gets tired of showing receipts."
Marwa's expression turns shy, and she fiddles with the sash around her waist. "I mean, I'm new at this. Relationships, or. This kind of togetherness, whatever we're calling it. But yeah. If we trust each other, then what's there to worry about, you know?"
He's mildly surprised, but only mildly. He's seen her touch-and-go over the last year'n'a'bit. He's searched memory and never heard her mention an ex or anything like that, not proof positive but y'know. He gives her hand a gentle squeeze.
"It's been a minute for me, too," he murmurs. "But," and I think he hesitates a second and then is going to kind of realize that every time he's had post-hoc worry that he came on too strong she's had the opposite of a pullback reaction, "If there's any part of my future I'm certain of, it's that I want you in it. I kind of can't believe how perfect you are, honestly. I mean, not perfect like - I just mean," he kind of catches up to himself, flustered. "Even if I could, I wouldn't change a thing about you."
Abashed silence for a second, then a mischievous smile, "Not even the way you talk in your sleep."
She looks so fucking in love with him through most of that and then he says the last thing and she squawks, "Excuse you, I do not! Somebody would have told me."
"Pai did not raise a liar, Marwa," chiding, teasing. "You were quite distressed. Something about rabbits being the wrong colour?"
"WHAT!?" I reach up both hands and cover his mouth, while we're walking. "No I didn't, you're just telling tales."
He pushes your hands off, laughing. "Nimbus, back me up here."
"I am a dainty sleeper, a real lady."
Nimbus zings in a little circle around Mika's head, and the face in the clouds looks amused.
Marwa clearly hears something in her thoughts and her jaw drops. "I can't believe it, you two ganging up on me. What is the world coming to?"
He laughs aloud, wishes he knew how to give a cloud a high-five. You're getting close to the gatehouse. Nimbus backing him up / showing solidarity is such an endorsement of a creature that's clearly so close to her that he's kind of buzzing about it a little bit, like not to overread but still, Mika recognized it as a brief show of camaraderie before Nimbusloated off to Marwa's other side, high up.
Once they've surrendered weapons, presented library cards, been reminded fire is not allowed etc, he'll grab her hand and lead her down the steps, taking a hard right into LIES/fiction right away
He probably pauses first, reminds you of the aura of fiction (Statements will be changed so it's no longer true). He's browsing as you go through the section, says with a smile bearing please-remember-the-fiction-aura strain that she should pick something boring to take with them.
"Terrible idea."
Marwa goes looking through the stacks for something epic. She'd take two that caught her eye. Pretty lettering, or something about the premise seemed to snag her. The first is a romantic thriller about a team of mermaid assassins who hunt pirates. The second is a mystery set in Bedlam. Rickety iron gates, decrepit mansions. This mystery is set there, and it's a whodunnit, a detective novel.
You make your way through LIES/Fiction and pick out those books. The floor abruptly becomes slick as you're walking through a corridor, Mika wobbles but keeps his footing, and if it weren't for your air powers you would have landed flat on your ass.
'The fuck!?'
Once he's steady, Mika halts, and not just because the floor continues to be shiny ahead.
He frowns. "Cube. Close. This shit usually evaporates pretty quick."
As he says it, you can see the slick you just slipped on already starting to flake and dry.
Marwa looks blank-faced, very clearly communicating CLUELESSNESS.
He's confused at your confusion, then he realizes your mutual party's never faced one, and you're more of a running-around-outside person than an indoor reader of faraway places.
"A Gelatinous Cube? It's a kind of ooze. Library brings them in to manage the dust." (the corridor behind you is, in fact, spotless compared to some of the branching paths you've passed)
"They're corrosive, and transparent, so I wouldn't go taking off at a run."
"Sounds fun."
"They're a pain in the ass. Take up the whole damn hallway. We'll have to loop through AFTERDEATH. Unless you feel like a skirmish?"
"Are we allowed to fight this thing?"
"Yeah, Library will just bring in more. Or resuscitate it. I'm not sure Oozes actually die, they just kind of dissemble. Tricky without damaging the books though."
"I mean I got a couple books. Do you want to leave, or stick it out? Happy to kill this thing with you, if you want."
"Be faster, except my stuff doesn't work on them, and I've lost WOHM privileges here." He explains, "OH, "Wand-of-hold-monster.' Preloaded if you're not a caster, for safety reasons. Apprentices and interns spend too much time in the stacks not to be given some kind of protection, and it doesn't work on people so there's not much risk of abuse. But I don't work here anymore, so."
"So people who come to the library just have to deal with it? This place makes absolutely no fucking sense."
"Hey you got the warning, same as anyone else. Cubes are slow, if you're not walking and reading it's hard to walk into one by accident, they're mostly a pain."
"Yeah, let's scoot. Annoying to have to relocate until this thing moves on, but yeah - lead on!"
He backtracks you into a section labeled "AFTERDEATH (SOUL)." He's privately amused that this section is next door to fiction, though there's no way to prove the Library put it there by association and not by coincidence. It contains volumes on the nature of the soul and afterlives, the ethereal plane. It loops around through a few other branching areas, but after the detour you end up back in the room where you first met Shiv! Long, rectangular, with a narrow and shallow pool running along the centre, the pool's bottom is mirrored, and there's a reading stand at the centre of one long edge of it. You can see a five-foot-by-five-foot cube of almost-clear, translucent jelly shlorping along the opposite end of the room, too far away to be a worry, making its way inch by inch toward another adjoining corridor.
Mika gestures toward it. "Cube. Grossest mop of all time."
"I really want to toss something in it."
He laughs, "You could. Nothing you want back, though."
"I really want like, fake googly eyes, so we can make it look like it has eyes. Alas, I don't have any on me. Next time, remind me to bring some?" Minibit — 5/26/2025 5:20 PM
I wind fake groucho glasses over, part of an old disguise kit. Stick them to one of the sides of the cube. "Heh."
It sticks for a moment, then starts dissolving, melting. The glasses are metal frames, so they stick around but you can see they're already rusting. The hair of the moustache and brows dissolves almost right away.
"Aww. Damn. Ah well, it was funny for a second."
Mika got a chuckle out of it, too. It’s not a significant enough meal to make the cube change course, so it shlorps away. Mika makes a face.
"I tried. So many times to get them to just buy mops. But anyway. Go ahead and put one of your books on the reading stand, won't you? I can't believe I let Shiv distract us from this before."
"Oh. Sure."
Mermaids it is!
'Hunting in the Deep.' "Seemed cool."
She opens up to a scene where the pirates have discovered their captain dead, and spot a single mermaid cresting the waves, swimming away. The crew sounds the alarm, ALL HANDS ON DECK LADS.
This scene appears in the pool, like an instant and perfect-accuracy just-how-you-thought-it-would-be-in-your-head movie version
"DUDE!" Mirage is instantly engrossed, and Mika's grinning from ear to ear.
"Keep swimming! Why the fuck wouldn't you swim DOWN, they can't chase you there? Ugh. So dumb." She's like, armchair coaching the characters.
He laughs, sidles up beside her, turns the page to let the scene continue. It’s like watching a silent film, but in colour.
"It works with nonfiction, too."
During your detour took you through LIFE (biographies), he swiped a volume off the shelf on sight, like he seemed to recognize it. He’ll put it on the stand.
She snatches the mermaid book back and says, "I gotta start this one."
"You could borrow it, you do have a card."
He flips the book from LIFE to a section, fond nostalgia on his face, and lays it down on the stand.
In the pool, a green field appears, the scene is centred on a spire that looks like it would be built of actual gold, except the yellow is too pale, and is streaked with glittering blue like veins of sapphire There's like a clear, shifting dome spreading out from the spire's point, and all the plant life within it is verdant, thick fields of all manner of fruit, vegetable, and fragrant flower. People wander at ease in the space, dressed in strange red robes that leave their shoulders and arms bare to the wrists. The location is unfamiliar.
Mika's looking at it engrossed, leaning on the stand a little bit.
"That's about a mile outside of town. There's a little fishing village there now. No farms, it's too craggy. But this book," resting a hand gently on the open pages, "was originally written about eleven hundred years ago. It's debatable how accurate it is, it's been retranslated and transcribed so many times. The Library left it out of Creative Nonfiction, though, so that says something. It's one of the most complete pictures we have of an Abenese Imperial colony, pre-cataclysms."
Marwa considers the scene in the pool, and then looks at Mika. "Pretty cool. This a favorite of yours?"
He nods, "I wish it had sound," he says, softly. "There's nothing left of those towers but corrupted slag. None of their documentation survived. They're speaking a dead language. This scene? It's a farmer's house. This was a commoner's dwelling."
He gestures at the glittering opulence, clearly still dumbstruck as whatever day years ago when he first beheld it.
I'm looking at him just enraptured with this scene, the history of it
He'll nerd to her if she's a willing listener, his tone is reverent. He used to spend way too much time making the pool recreate accounts like this. This is a key part of why he wanted to travel. It started here, looking at places too far away to imagine and having them brought to life before him, so real it's amazing you can't reach out and touch them. The pool is surrounded by the Fiction section, but he'd always make the trip from Biography and Geography.
He'll show her scenes from when Midnight was an outpost of the Kingdom of Stone, little more than a fortress on the coastline, but the stones are the same.
“Wow. No wonder you love this place. It’s like history comes to life.”
"It's the literal only way to see these places anymore."
Looking at history books in the Reflecting Pool gives him the same kind of feeling as when historians think about the library of Alexandria. He'll tell her there's also a telescope in the geography section that will show places in the Realms at the present moment - creatures excluded, though. But like, you can point the telescope at Auria and see your house.
If she wants to check it out he'll take her there happily. They can spend some time just looking around the Realms, being amused at how it's sunset in Arvandor already. He's never been to Chult but he's looked at it through here. It's pretty. Very green. Undeveloped as hell compared to the city they're in. The towns and villages look eerie with the people filtered out, there's a city built in the caldera of a dormant volcano called Cauldron. They say the door to the World Serpent's prison is below it.
"Dude we should totally go! I mean, if you want. This place just makes you hungry for travel, doesn't it?"
"It's probably ninety percent of why I first hit the road, to be honest." His eyes linger on the subcontinent when you mention Chult, but he looks unsure. "I dunno. Maybe. If there's a job or something."
There's no clocks in the library, but he looks up. "Hungry? It's gotta be getting near lunch by now."
Marwa is surprised at the abrupt change of topics. I don't say anything, I just take his hand and say, "Yeah. Let's go get my Dad, and then make him buy us lunch."
He kind of laughs, can tell she's joking but still feels an impulse to say something like that he's absolutely not gonna do that. They make their way over to the Obsidian Angel
They make an inquiry at the desk and he'll come down. He went by the Library after the event yesterday and so obviously the introvert was having a cooldown-morning with his books, but he's very pleased to be disturbed by the little thunderclap that is his daughter. Mika didn't process until they were already headed over there that this is his first time seeing your family since you two got together, but clearly values the opinion of her baba who scanned more Sternly Critical.
His steps slow as you approach. He's not dragging his feet exactly, but he's not excited.
I squeeze his hand as a way to reassure him, we're walking in here holding hands. I am not ashamed or afraid of what Dad has to say. I made my choice, you don't have to like it, but you have to respect it and me, and this person I care about.
Someone from the staff will run up and let Mr. Noor know there are people asking for him in the common room. He comes down pretty much right away. He's dressed more or less the same as he would be at home. Comfortable, nothing ostentatious, but quality.
He shows up and I say, "Dad!" and I run up and give him a big hug
He meets you arms out, gives a big big hug.
Mika's a step or two behind you.
Julius puts you down and smiles at you, "It's good to see you safe and sound, little thunder."
"You too, Dad! Missed you. Having fun in Midnight?"
"It's a fascinating city. I got to see some familiar faces again, which was nice."
Mika gets a handshake and a "nice to see you again" The tone isn’t stilted or anything but it's not exuberant either.
"Olá novamente" <Hello again>
Julius shifts us immediately to, "Lunch? Did you two have an idea of where you wanted to go?" The Noors in general are loud and direct, but I think Julius isn't a very confrontational person
At lunch, the group sticks to safe topics. Marwa shares about swapping words with Mika's family the other day. The visit's kind of winding down anyway when it starts to be early afternoon. Marwa says, "Well, we've got somewhere to be but this was a nice visit!"
I'd have told Dad we have plans at such and such an hour, but we wanted to tell him about our library visit and the ship is running real good and we're having so much fun and being SO safe, pinky promise.
Julius asks some questions about the celebration the two of them attended, "Did you have fun with Siobhan and her friends?"
Marwa's like "OMG we went to this club it was literally underground I could feel the bass it was so fun! And then we DANCED for HOURS and you should have seen it, the mocktails are so good, and we left before Storm could climb the roof but we're told it happened and was awesome."
Mika shakes his head, smiling, makes some comment about how Storm's a rowdy guy even when he's sober. Harmless, but rowdy.
Julius makes Marwa promise to call home later, reminds her they worry. The tension with Mika has eased off a bunch by the time you part ways.
Beni lives in the same neighbourhood as Shiv, they became friends just passing each other on the street / being in the same place so often it felt weird not to say hello at a point.
Beni's a bachelor, he doesn't live with his parents like Shiv does, he has a smallish place near the edge of this sort of borough. Enroute, they swung back by the inn to take some-but-not-all of the sweeter snacks to share. Mika will comment that it's kind of familiar. He doesn't play, so if he sat in he usually just brought food for his contribution.
“Nice! Well hopefully everybody is into Aurian candies and pastries. Mom sent A LOT.”
"I'm sure they will be. Two out of three of them are sweet tooths anyway. Sweet teeth? They like candy."
“Gosh you’re cute.”
Marwa has a bounce in her step, excited to see all the friends she met last night. They hear the music as they're walking up.
Mika will knock on the door. The music keeps going, he kind of smiles and shakes his head, tries the door. It's open. He shrugs and lets you in. They enter a simple kitchen, it's got an island with pots and pans hanging above, a doorway on one side leads into what would be a front room/sitting room if Beni hadn't converted it to the Band Practice Zone, and stairs going up probably lead to bedrooms. I think when he sees movement in the kitchen Raj stops playing and a second after that the rest of the music stops.
Beni pokes his black-and-yellow scaly head in and grins a big sharp-toothed grin, "Hey, you made it!"
Fistbump for Mika, hug for Mirage.
“Good to see you guys again!” She says.
Hug is a little awkward because Beni still has his guitar slung across himself but is friendly nonetheless.
"Right back at you! Whatcha got there?" Eyeing the box in Mika’s hands.
"Snacks."
Beni peeks inside. "Nice, our drummer's sugar crashing already. Come on in, grab kitchen chairs if you want, otherwise there's cushions."
Mika will grab a chair, grips it underhand from the back like he's done it a million times before sets it against the wall just inside. As they step in Beni grabs a frosted cookie out of the box and calls, "Heads up!"
Eli catches it before he sees what it is. "Oh, sweet."
Raj is also here, seated on a cushion, holding bass in hand. He raises a hand in greeting when you come in "Hey Mika, hey Mirage. Good to see you two again."
“You too, Raj!”
She’s greeting everyone, Eli included, who's got a mouthful of cookie but he waves
“Hey man, good to see you again.”
Gulp. "G'morning!"
"Dude it's two in the afternoon" Raj laughs.
"Morning is the first three hours after waking up. Good morning."
“Oh! As someone who chronically sleeps late, I like this definition. I think I might steal it. Good morning to you too.” Mirage nods her head.
"Go for it, first one's free."
"We were just warming up," Beni says, reentering the room with the snacks they brought split onto a few plates so they can be on the low table reachable from all parties
"Any vetoes, gentlemen?" Beni asks, re-equipping his guitar
Raj is fine with anything, stands back up. "No ballads," Eli yawns, "at least not until coffee kicks in."
“That's so valid.” Mirage blurts.
"You play anything, Mirage?" Raj asks her.
“Several years of cello lessons were not enough to instill any sense of musicality in me, unfortunately, despite my parents best efforts.”
The moment feels like an air-clearer after last night’s party. It’s a less high-stim environment, they can rock out for a while, then get to chatting, how they got into their instruments. Between five people there's probably a couple conversational threads going at a time. Mirage thinks to herself that this little slice of normalcy is so nice.
They’re curious to hear what Mika has been up to
Not the Amir story, but Marwa does share some of their funnest stories about jailbreaks. The king she flipped off had her arrested because he’s a petty bitch. But she sweet talked the guard, snuck out.
Eli's tuned the fuck in on that story, snorts and say that's cheating but he's grinning its clearly not serious.
“To be honest I’m more experienced breaking INTO places than I am busting out, but you do what you have to, you know?”
"Preach,"
“What about you, Eli? Got any crazy work stories you're allowed to share?”
"Sure, everyone here's cool, yeah?"
He tells a story of breaking into the manor whose proprietor shall remain nameless, liberating some extorted goods from his safe. Eli was along as the party safecracker.
"Thing was a fucking monster. Ten by ten and most of the face was door. Pins were oiled or something - slippery, quiet. Fuckhead's damn dogs caught wind of something on the last digit, almost missed it setting with the racket they put up."
Fortunately they had druidic talent on board for that.
He's busted out of a cell a few times too, but they were all in the same jailhouse, so he doesn't really count them separate. "Different frosting, same cookie."
He doesn't have any magical tricks, or if he does he's keeping them secret. He cracks safes and picks locks by feel and sound, leaning more on one when the other's obstructed (feel if it's noisy, sound if he can't be still, etc). He's got a contrarian streak, just the presence of a "keep out" sign is enough to make him want to walk around on the other side, leave some bootprints as a fuck you
“Omg same though.”
Raj is too interested getting to know New Person, and Eli's too distracted by roguery neither of them notice especially that Mika's part in their adventuring is being deliberately talked around. Well, Eli notices but assumes its standard Mika Doesn't Like Being Centre Of Attention and pays little mind to it unless something more directly avoidant happens. Some of these stories would include Mika solving riddles, puzzling through shit
“He and Talok are the brains of the operation. I just provide the comic relief.”
Mika would give a "the rest of the team" quick cast list. He emphasizes that he works with two guys built like tanks and a lady who can turn into a grizzly bear who are handy for getting Out of a Bind.
Y'knw, just putting that out there.
Eli rolls his eyes.
"Hey Raj I've just decided I'll be at training later after all."
Beni would suggest a getting to know u game, like Never Have I Ever
“You guys have something I can drink that’s non alcoholic? Some soda or something?” No one would insist on alcohol, it's afternoon.
"It's a little early for drinks anyway" Raj agrees.
"Clockwise, then?" Beni asks.
“Who starts?” Beni starts with an easy one "never have I ever started a fire while making dinner. Or any other meal."
Eli and Raj both drink immediately. Marwa does, too.
Mika hesitates, "Does it count if-"
"Game's called Never, firebug." Eli answers.
"Fine." Mika takes a swig.
Beni's surprised, Mika shrugs "What do you want from me man, I was ten."
"Valid, mine was like, two years ago." Marwa shrugs.
Mika smiles at her fondly. Somehow even that she can't cook is cute. He remembers the few times she's tried, the almost pouty look she had as she stared down at the biohazard her recipes turned into.
It's a pleasant expression that falls a second later.
"And what were you making?" Elijah, catching Mika's eye contact and speaking so hyper-mildly that it would sound like disinterest if not for the shit-eating grin on his face.
Mika's kind of staring at him in disbelief for a second, but his tone has made it clear that the answer is funny, so now everyone's waiting.
"Sandwich."
"Oh interesting, do you need fire to make those?" Still grinning, leaning over the drums.
"You do if you want toast."
"And how hot does a stove need to be to make toast, firebug?"
"Can't stress enough, I was ten." But he's not actually mad, he's aware it was ridiculous and there's a smile under the annoyance.
"Did you forget it on the stove or something?" Beni asks.
Sigh.
"No, I just threw way too much fuel in and got too distracted watching it burn. By the time I realized how hot it had gotten it was scorching the wall behind it." A rueful chuckle, "I'm frankly super lucky Dad came home when he did."
"And people wonder how you got to be an arsonist." Smug
"You can't prove anything."
"Cause you burned the evidence."
"Never have I ever..." Raj hastily interrupts the line of teasing that is swiftly turning to banter…
Eli nods along as you talk.
"Lightning's fun, you can do all kinds of stuff with that. Make it branch out to mimic another shape, if you show it striking you can play with the impact. Any particular reason or just like the look?"
I hold my palm up, the one that's not holding my drink, and you can hear a low crackle and see a flash of electricity spark off my hand.
"Buddy, I am lightning." And I smile big
His eyes widen a little, and he's got a 'damnthatscool' kind of face, there's a beat, and then his eyes flick to Mika with a knowing smirk and Mika glares, not actual angry but like, "oh fuck off" kind of expression, reddening, which gets the grin of someone who was gunning for that and got it before he returns to conversation at hand
"Comes in handy for work, I bet."
"Sure does! Bet you've got a few tricks of your own though, yeah?" I raise an eyebrow at him, prompting him to show off, if he wants.
A cocky smile, "Not much applicable here -- unless of course you're down for a little competition?"
Mika looks wary, not sure what's being suggested. He's going to assume something roguelike, but also knows Eli likes this place and doesn't want to get on a ban list for it.
"Dance off? You're on. Babe, hold my drink. Unless you want to back out? No shame in saying no, you know." Said with a challenging grin.
He's slightly startled by the suggestion, because he knows that's not the kind of talent you were referencing when you said he could show off.
He can't get a read on you, answers, "That's really more his thing," he says, leaning back on the bar in a very "not going anyplace" way, nodding to Mika in deferral.
At the comment, Mika will slide off his stool in agreement. "I should make sure Nissa doesn't actually steal you, regardless."
"No worries, man. I'll catch you another time," and I grab Mika's hand and follow him out to the dance floor.
He does a little two-finger salute wave-off, sprinkle vibes of "Sure, whenever" atop it.
Mika's very happy to dance with you some more
Soon as they're far enough away that they can't be heard and it's less feasible for someone to clock a conversation from body language/faces he's gonna gently inquire, "You okay?"
"Yep. Sorry, I could have been less of a bitch. I just...got a little mad, after what he said," and my gaze drifts over his scars. "It was dumb, I'll chill out. Promise."
At first he has a genuine like "which thing" but then he can clock your eyes drifting to the side of his face, "No, it's fine. It was uncalled-for, but it wasn't... he's just like that." He sounds so, so tired.
"I was kind of expecting it, to be honest. He's pulling his punches. Don't let him get to you, ‘kay? It's bluster."
There's more he wants to say but also this is to him a weird place to discuss topics so close to the chest and also he does not want to ruin the night if further discussion starts to reveal things you might not be sympatico on, and that trepidation keeps it buttoned up.
Storm returned from the Introvert Table while you were dancing. Shiv clocks Realtalk faces between him and Eli at the bar, gives them a minute, then heads over.
Eli's still back to the bar whereas Storm's sitting normally and looking sideways, so he sees her coming.
“Shiv! Up top, short stuff.” He holds his palm out for a high five, which she grants, hopping a stool.
"Official Necromancer!"
"Yup!" Big proud grin from "short stuff"
"So it's not presumptuous anymore" an I’m-getting-at-something grin from Elijah.
Shiv is pleasantly buzzed but still together enough to clock something these two have chatted about many times before.
"My only reservation remains that it has to tie in with the thorns," she says, indicating the twisting brambles along her arms and shoulders. “Obviously. Okay this one’s bigger than you were saying, but stay with me here; you expand them down the shoulder along the back; vertical overall, transition the thorns into roots; less sharp, more twisty. Shadowed. Blend some spirits in at the bottom, maybe a few drifting upward. My first thought was wraithlike, but you could do Hebi if you wanted.”
“Hm,” she’s intrigued, looks at her arm where the violet snake winds around it. “Weird to have him in two places, though.”
“That was my thought, too. Besides, wraiths are flexible; you could have them super abstract and subtle, blended in with the shading, or pull them to the foreground and make ‘em dance on the roots. Though if you went for a corporeal scene I’d go for skeletons instead. Or both.”
Shiv’s thinking. "One condition."
Eli's turn to look intrigued. "It's literally your body and I'm not telling you what to do, but shoot."
“You have to sketch it out for me.”
He's startled. "You sure??"
“Positive.”
“You don’t want it more separate then? I don’t know about expanding off someone else’s design…” but he’s not making eye contact anymore, he’s studying her shoulder, looking at the shape and style of the thorns her snake tattoo is twisting through.
"Yeah man, it's not like you're doing the needlework, it'll be fine." He concedes the point, starting to get excited for a new project.
Shiv admits that she wants something commemorative for completing her studies and given the shared interest that they would have tossed ideas back and forth a bunch over the last while.
I think while we're out dancing, I'd check in with him to see how he's feeling. "I think I promised Shiv, and Nissa one more dance each, but you're running the show tonight. Say the word, and we're off."
He smiles, appreciative. He wants a chance to catch up with Shiv, who's been butterflying, but otherwise is good to go whenever; this has been A Lot. Also he'd mention that Beni invited them to band practice tomorrow, quickly give the rundown that he and Raj and Eli do music sometimes. He's down if she is, but it's her call.
"Sure! I love live music. We can go get dinner somewhere fun after, if you want. Make an occasion out of it."
Bigger smile. "I'd like that." He wants to catch up with Shiv, congratulate her on her effort, inquire what this means for her vis a vis the Library etc. Shiv plans to keep working there for now, she likes it, and she never had that "I gotta get outta this town" bug that he did.
I think he'd grab her at a table, plop into a seat, "I didn't get to tell you congrats yet." He gives her a big, proud smile.
"No, you didn't. I'm ready, whenever you are."
"Congratulations on not accidentally turning into a vampire, lich, ghoul, or anything else unsavoury during the course of your education. When your pallid legions march upon the city, please remember your friends."
"Thank you, and I will. Everybody here but you will have a front row seat to the carnage I unleash upon the world." And she grins ."How're you doing? Good to see you and Mirage here tonight." She can’t help a sly smirk at the Mirage mention.
"Doing all right. It's wild, seeing everyone again."
He has a self-conscious laugh when she smirks about Mirage. He says that he hopes nobody's offended that he hasn't spent much time with anyone else.
"I don't think so. The entertainment factor of seeing you walk around with heart eyes this whole time is worth it." She nudges his arm with her elbow in a teasing way. "Seriously though. Happy for you. Managed to find someone just as sappy as you, somehow."
He smiles, like he's been thinking the same thing. "Thanks, Shiv. For pushing me, too."
"Anytime."
"We're probably going to head out soon."
"Awww boo. Fine, but you'll probably miss Storm hanging from the roof again."
He laughs "Paint me a word picture when I see you next. We're in town for a little while, anyway."
"Good! We'll get coffee sometime, or deface some property or something. It'll be great."
"Oh hell yes. Keep an eye out for kindling, will you?
"You know it."
"Hard to get a blaze going on the road without starting a damn brushfire. Never saw the utility of stone before." Shiv gets a goodbye-for-now hug because she's Shiv, everyone else gets a fistbump. He does a cursory glance around for Eli but doesn't see him and kind of goes "Oh well I guess I don't have to talk to him anymore then too bad so sad can't be helped!"
The night's cool outside, mist off the harbour always gives this city a general evening fog
Mirage, in the way of all extroverts, is buzzing after the party. Made a bunch of new friends, got to dance, hang out with Shiv, win/win all around.
Mika's tired but not exhausted, just kind of at normal end-of-the-day energy levels. Mika's not got like, head-on-swivel, but he's tapped back into sensible habit of checking corners every block or so. He's less worried than he would have been pre-adventure life. Guildies don't have a reason to come after them, neither do the Shadows, and the two of them can almost certainly take random street toughs.
"You were saying earlier, about 'after.' If I'd come back here."
She turns to look at him, gives him her attention.
"I don't really have a picture of where I'll end up. Like you said, it's not something you go out and pick up at the market." He gives her a small sideways smile for the callback. "But I have been thinking, I know there's melee training, and it definitely helps, but I don't know - hm."
He's thinking, trying to organize words.
"I think I mentioned, last time we talked Wishes, how being mindful of the timeline is a concern. How I can't just wish I never ended up in this situation, because it goes too far back. If I stayed mundane, I never would have gone looking for mercenary work. I kind of still think I'm not going to be much use without it. I'm not really sure where that leaves me, to be honest."
Mirage looks like she's thinking. "Okay. First of all, can I just say that I love that you're thinking about a life post-this bullshit. Seriously. Love that for you. Second of all, not because I need to know but just because I'm curious, what's the gist of your wish thus far? If you have like, a general 'I wish for this thing to no longer exist' angle, or whatever. And third...regardless of what is and is not possible, what do you want to do? If you could shape the future exactly as you wished, what would that look like? Where would you live, what would you do for work," she hesitates for a half-breath, "who would you be with? All of it."
"Well part of that is very easy," sidestep for a little cheek smooch. "I've just been, I don't know, kind of caught up in more present concerns. The last time I had a clear picture of the future was... a long time ago. I wanted different things. Had different options. I'm overdue for an update, I guess."
"That's fair. I also get...not wanting to look too far in the future, because things in the present are so uncertain." She bites her lip as she thinks this out. "But if it helps in your considerations, just know that I'm down for pretty much anything. If I get to come with you, then I don't really care where we end up. As long as there's good coffee and you love me, what else could go wrong, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." He's smiling at you with a look like 'damn how many more blocks til the inn. Was it this long of a walk on the way there?'
I see him eyeing me and I mutter under my breath, "Just a quick one." And I yoink him by the shirt plant one on him. Gotta keep our eyes peeled for stuff, and we're in public, but he can't give me those heart eyes and expect my girl to do NOTHING.
She gets stepped back onto a wall real quick, because yea yea situational awareness but damn she's hot even when she's not speaking earnestly about wanting to be a part of his future no matter what it looks like. Sometimes there's nothing for it, you just gotta kiss the girl.
The following morning, Mika gets his mail. Mirage probably sleeps in, she's on vacation.
She wakes up to coffee smells. Mika's at the little provided table, there's a little package on it, open, and he's reading a letter. More saliently, there's a little carafe of coffee and two mugs, one of which he's sipping from with his free hand
The scent of the coffee lures me over. "Whatsis?" She mumbles
He looks up when she sits up, smiles at her while she's rubbing sleep from her eyes. She's got world-class bedhead. He has a coffee poured when she shuffles over, presses it into her hands without a word.
Once she's closer she can also smell the cookies and stuff her mom sent. "Oh fuck yes."
I start ripping into my own care package. "Heh. Did she give you socks, too? Woman is insane." Lydia sent her snacks and socks and a bunch of her favourite accessories and stuff that she had to leave for lack of bag space, some jewelry, but also like, silky summer scarves, etc.
"I'm not complaining, saves me some darning. Or, well, lets me put it off longer I guess,” he laughs. "She may have overestimated my sweet tooth though," looking at the frankly indulgent amount of chocolates, small pastries, cookies.
"Don't worry, I'll help if you need. She probably just wanted to make sure you had lots of choices."
"Do you think she'd care if I brought a bunch of this to Beni's later?"
"No, that's a great idea. As long as you get some, too. Don't give it all away!"
"Of course." "Aw did she write you a letter, too? Wonder if she did that for everyone. Mine just says to be good, and to use the sending stone more. And for us to take care of each other, but we're doing that already, so."
"She says your dad's in town."
"Right, to see Shiv graduate. Does she say how long he plans to say? We should say hi, if we have time."
He glances at the postscript again to check. "There's absolutely time. She didn't say, but presumably Shiv told him you're also here, so I assume he's not taking off first thing."
He’s staying at the Obsidian Angel Hotel Inn.
"Cool. So other than band practice, what else is on the docket for today? More library stuff?"
"Not much. Still waiting on word back from the temple. I think Beni said afternoon, so we can head over around two I guess. Still reading through my Dawnharbour loans, but I'll never say no to a visit. I never did get to show you what the reflecting room does, last time. Or the telescope," his gaze is faraway, you can tell there's a long list of shit he's realizing you didn't get to before
She sees the wheels in his head turning and is like, oh dear, I have to negotiate with this dude or we will spend the entire day there. She suggests dropping by Julius' hotel to see if he's free for lunch/coffee, "Okay, how about this. I'll caffeinate until I'm a real person, and then we'll go to the library for a few hours, and then maybe we can bug Dad for lunch? What say you?"
"Deal" is his response, accompanied by an excited grin.
He's got a jump in his step on the way to the Gatehouse. The black streets are glittery in the morning light, still damp from the night fog. Once you get onto the main street, he comments that if one added it all up, probably something close to half his life before leaving Midnight was probably spent walking to and from on this road.
Well, maybe a third, adjusting for sleep.
Then again, considering the company he kept, a lot of time was spent not sleeping. So maybe yeah, half.
"That's a lot of walking, and a lot of life!"
He laughs, "When your best friend just needs to zone out for four hours and then she's good, shit ensues, you know?"
"Makes total sense. Gotta be a full-time job to keep up with that woman."
"She's a walking shakeup, for sure." He smiles at you sideways, "Is it weird if I'm really relieved the two of you get along?"
"Haha not at all! Were you worried we wouldn't mesh well?"
He shrugs, "I don't know about worried, but it would have been kind of a bummer. I mean, she's not a perfect person any more than anyone else, nobody has to like her, but...I dunno. She's my oldest friend. She's important. I don't think it would've been a deal breaker if you didn't get along, but, y'know."
"No, I get it. She'd make for a terrifying enemy. Thankfully, she's fucking awesome."
He laughs, "I still can't believe she gave me the "if you hurt her" spiel. I mean it's not like I thought she'd tell you but that was surprising."
"I can't either, like, what the hell?! Neither of us should hurt each other! I mean on purpose, shit happens. Nobody's perfect, like you said."
"She was probably joking, honestly." He looks contemplative.
"Have there been other people who took issue with your friendship with Shiv?"
He kind of cringes. "One or two. Which, I kind of get."
"Really? I don't. Sorry that happened. You either trust someone, or you don't."
An appreciative smile, if a small one. "I'm really glad you feel that way, honestly. A guy gets tired of showing receipts."
Marwa's expression turns shy, and she fiddles with the sash around her waist. "I mean, I'm new at this. Relationships, or. This kind of togetherness, whatever we're calling it. But yeah. If we trust each other, then what's there to worry about, you know?"
He's mildly surprised, but only mildly. He's seen her touch-and-go over the last year'n'a'bit. He's searched memory and never heard her mention an ex or anything like that, not proof positive but y'know. He gives her hand a gentle squeeze.
"It's been a minute for me, too," he murmurs. "But," and I think he hesitates a second and then is going to kind of realize that every time he's had post-hoc worry that he came on too strong she's had the opposite of a pullback reaction, "If there's any part of my future I'm certain of, it's that I want you in it. I kind of can't believe how perfect you are, honestly. I mean, not perfect like - I just mean," he kind of catches up to himself, flustered. "Even if I could, I wouldn't change a thing about you."
Abashed silence for a second, then a mischievous smile, "Not even the way you talk in your sleep."
She looks so fucking in love with him through most of that and then he says the last thing and she squawks, "Excuse you, I do not! Somebody would have told me."
"Pai did not raise a liar, Marwa," chiding, teasing. "You were quite distressed. Something about rabbits being the wrong colour?"
"WHAT!?" I reach up both hands and cover his mouth, while we're walking. "No I didn't, you're just telling tales."
He pushes your hands off, laughing. "Nimbus, back me up here."
"I am a dainty sleeper, a real lady."
Nimbus zings in a little circle around Mika's head, and the face in the clouds looks amused.
Marwa clearly hears something in her thoughts and her jaw drops. "I can't believe it, you two ganging up on me. What is the world coming to?"
He laughs aloud, wishes he knew how to give a cloud a high-five. You're getting close to the gatehouse. Nimbus backing him up / showing solidarity is such an endorsement of a creature that's clearly so close to her that he's kind of buzzing about it a little bit, like not to overread but still, Mika recognized it as a brief show of camaraderie before Nimbusloated off to Marwa's other side, high up.
Once they've surrendered weapons, presented library cards, been reminded fire is not allowed etc, he'll grab her hand and lead her down the steps, taking a hard right into LIES/fiction right away
He probably pauses first, reminds you of the aura of fiction (Statements will be changed so it's no longer true). He's browsing as you go through the section, says with a smile bearing please-remember-the-fiction-aura strain that she should pick something boring to take with them.
"Terrible idea."
Marwa goes looking through the stacks for something epic. She'd take two that caught her eye. Pretty lettering, or something about the premise seemed to snag her. The first is a romantic thriller about a team of mermaid assassins who hunt pirates. The second is a mystery set in Bedlam. Rickety iron gates, decrepit mansions. This mystery is set there, and it's a whodunnit, a detective novel.
You make your way through LIES/Fiction and pick out those books. The floor abruptly becomes slick as you're walking through a corridor, Mika wobbles but keeps his footing, and if it weren't for your air powers you would have landed flat on your ass.
'The fuck!?'
Once he's steady, Mika halts, and not just because the floor continues to be shiny ahead.
He frowns. "Cube. Close. This shit usually evaporates pretty quick."
As he says it, you can see the slick you just slipped on already starting to flake and dry.
Marwa looks blank-faced, very clearly communicating CLUELESSNESS.
He's confused at your confusion, then he realizes your mutual party's never faced one, and you're more of a running-around-outside person than an indoor reader of faraway places.
"A Gelatinous Cube? It's a kind of ooze. Library brings them in to manage the dust." (the corridor behind you is, in fact, spotless compared to some of the branching paths you've passed)
"They're corrosive, and transparent, so I wouldn't go taking off at a run."
"Sounds fun."
"They're a pain in the ass. Take up the whole damn hallway. We'll have to loop through AFTERDEATH. Unless you feel like a skirmish?"
"Are we allowed to fight this thing?"
"Yeah, Library will just bring in more. Or resuscitate it. I'm not sure Oozes actually die, they just kind of dissemble. Tricky without damaging the books though."
"I mean I got a couple books. Do you want to leave, or stick it out? Happy to kill this thing with you, if you want."
"Be faster, except my stuff doesn't work on them, and I've lost WOHM privileges here." He explains, "OH, "Wand-of-hold-monster.' Preloaded if you're not a caster, for safety reasons. Apprentices and interns spend too much time in the stacks not to be given some kind of protection, and it doesn't work on people so there's not much risk of abuse. But I don't work here anymore, so."
"So people who come to the library just have to deal with it? This place makes absolutely no fucking sense."
"Hey you got the warning, same as anyone else. Cubes are slow, if you're not walking and reading it's hard to walk into one by accident, they're mostly a pain."
"Yeah, let's scoot. Annoying to have to relocate until this thing moves on, but yeah - lead on!"
He backtracks you into a section labeled "AFTERDEATH (SOUL)." He's privately amused that this section is next door to fiction, though there's no way to prove the Library put it there by association and not by coincidence. It contains volumes on the nature of the soul and afterlives, the ethereal plane. It loops around through a few other branching areas, but after the detour you end up back in the room where you first met Shiv! Long, rectangular, with a narrow and shallow pool running along the centre, the pool's bottom is mirrored, and there's a reading stand at the centre of one long edge of it. You can see a five-foot-by-five-foot cube of almost-clear, translucent jelly shlorping along the opposite end of the room, too far away to be a worry, making its way inch by inch toward another adjoining corridor.
Mika gestures toward it. "Cube. Grossest mop of all time."
"I really want to toss something in it."
He laughs, "You could. Nothing you want back, though."
"I really want like, fake googly eyes, so we can make it look like it has eyes. Alas, I don't have any on me. Next time, remind me to bring some?" Minibit — 5/26/2025 5:20 PM
I wind fake groucho glasses over, part of an old disguise kit. Stick them to one of the sides of the cube. "Heh."
It sticks for a moment, then starts dissolving, melting. The glasses are metal frames, so they stick around but you can see they're already rusting. The hair of the moustache and brows dissolves almost right away.
"Aww. Damn. Ah well, it was funny for a second."
Mika got a chuckle out of it, too. It’s not a significant enough meal to make the cube change course, so it shlorps away. Mika makes a face.
"I tried. So many times to get them to just buy mops. But anyway. Go ahead and put one of your books on the reading stand, won't you? I can't believe I let Shiv distract us from this before."
"Oh. Sure."
Mermaids it is!
'Hunting in the Deep.' "Seemed cool."
She opens up to a scene where the pirates have discovered their captain dead, and spot a single mermaid cresting the waves, swimming away. The crew sounds the alarm, ALL HANDS ON DECK LADS.
This scene appears in the pool, like an instant and perfect-accuracy just-how-you-thought-it-would-be-in-your-head movie version
"DUDE!" Mirage is instantly engrossed, and Mika's grinning from ear to ear.
"Keep swimming! Why the fuck wouldn't you swim DOWN, they can't chase you there? Ugh. So dumb." She's like, armchair coaching the characters.
He laughs, sidles up beside her, turns the page to let the scene continue. It’s like watching a silent film, but in colour.
"It works with nonfiction, too."
During your detour took you through LIFE (biographies), he swiped a volume off the shelf on sight, like he seemed to recognize it. He’ll put it on the stand.
She snatches the mermaid book back and says, "I gotta start this one."
"You could borrow it, you do have a card."
He flips the book from LIFE to a section, fond nostalgia on his face, and lays it down on the stand.
In the pool, a green field appears, the scene is centred on a spire that looks like it would be built of actual gold, except the yellow is too pale, and is streaked with glittering blue like veins of sapphire There's like a clear, shifting dome spreading out from the spire's point, and all the plant life within it is verdant, thick fields of all manner of fruit, vegetable, and fragrant flower. People wander at ease in the space, dressed in strange red robes that leave their shoulders and arms bare to the wrists. The location is unfamiliar.
Mika's looking at it engrossed, leaning on the stand a little bit.
"That's about a mile outside of town. There's a little fishing village there now. No farms, it's too craggy. But this book," resting a hand gently on the open pages, "was originally written about eleven hundred years ago. It's debatable how accurate it is, it's been retranslated and transcribed so many times. The Library left it out of Creative Nonfiction, though, so that says something. It's one of the most complete pictures we have of an Abenese Imperial colony, pre-cataclysms."
Marwa considers the scene in the pool, and then looks at Mika. "Pretty cool. This a favorite of yours?"
He nods, "I wish it had sound," he says, softly. "There's nothing left of those towers but corrupted slag. None of their documentation survived. They're speaking a dead language. This scene? It's a farmer's house. This was a commoner's dwelling."
He gestures at the glittering opulence, clearly still dumbstruck as whatever day years ago when he first beheld it.
I'm looking at him just enraptured with this scene, the history of it
He'll nerd to her if she's a willing listener, his tone is reverent. He used to spend way too much time making the pool recreate accounts like this. This is a key part of why he wanted to travel. It started here, looking at places too far away to imagine and having them brought to life before him, so real it's amazing you can't reach out and touch them. The pool is surrounded by the Fiction section, but he'd always make the trip from Biography and Geography.
He'll show her scenes from when Midnight was an outpost of the Kingdom of Stone, little more than a fortress on the coastline, but the stones are the same.
“Wow. No wonder you love this place. It’s like history comes to life.”
"It's the literal only way to see these places anymore."
Looking at history books in the Reflecting Pool gives him the same kind of feeling as when historians think about the library of Alexandria. He'll tell her there's also a telescope in the geography section that will show places in the Realms at the present moment - creatures excluded, though. But like, you can point the telescope at Auria and see your house.
If she wants to check it out he'll take her there happily. They can spend some time just looking around the Realms, being amused at how it's sunset in Arvandor already. He's never been to Chult but he's looked at it through here. It's pretty. Very green. Undeveloped as hell compared to the city they're in. The towns and villages look eerie with the people filtered out, there's a city built in the caldera of a dormant volcano called Cauldron. They say the door to the World Serpent's prison is below it.
"Dude we should totally go! I mean, if you want. This place just makes you hungry for travel, doesn't it?"
"It's probably ninety percent of why I first hit the road, to be honest." His eyes linger on the subcontinent when you mention Chult, but he looks unsure. "I dunno. Maybe. If there's a job or something."
There's no clocks in the library, but he looks up. "Hungry? It's gotta be getting near lunch by now."
Marwa is surprised at the abrupt change of topics. I don't say anything, I just take his hand and say, "Yeah. Let's go get my Dad, and then make him buy us lunch."
He kind of laughs, can tell she's joking but still feels an impulse to say something like that he's absolutely not gonna do that. They make their way over to the Obsidian Angel
They make an inquiry at the desk and he'll come down. He went by the Library after the event yesterday and so obviously the introvert was having a cooldown-morning with his books, but he's very pleased to be disturbed by the little thunderclap that is his daughter. Mika didn't process until they were already headed over there that this is his first time seeing your family since you two got together, but clearly values the opinion of her baba who scanned more Sternly Critical.
His steps slow as you approach. He's not dragging his feet exactly, but he's not excited.
I squeeze his hand as a way to reassure him, we're walking in here holding hands. I am not ashamed or afraid of what Dad has to say. I made my choice, you don't have to like it, but you have to respect it and me, and this person I care about.
Someone from the staff will run up and let Mr. Noor know there are people asking for him in the common room. He comes down pretty much right away. He's dressed more or less the same as he would be at home. Comfortable, nothing ostentatious, but quality.
He shows up and I say, "Dad!" and I run up and give him a big hug
He meets you arms out, gives a big big hug.
Mika's a step or two behind you.
Julius puts you down and smiles at you, "It's good to see you safe and sound, little thunder."
"You too, Dad! Missed you. Having fun in Midnight?"
"It's a fascinating city. I got to see some familiar faces again, which was nice."
Mika gets a handshake and a "nice to see you again" The tone isn’t stilted or anything but it's not exuberant either.
"Olá novamente" <Hello again>
Julius shifts us immediately to, "Lunch? Did you two have an idea of where you wanted to go?" The Noors in general are loud and direct, but I think Julius isn't a very confrontational person
At lunch, the group sticks to safe topics. Marwa shares about swapping words with Mika's family the other day. The visit's kind of winding down anyway when it starts to be early afternoon. Marwa says, "Well, we've got somewhere to be but this was a nice visit!"
I'd have told Dad we have plans at such and such an hour, but we wanted to tell him about our library visit and the ship is running real good and we're having so much fun and being SO safe, pinky promise.
Julius asks some questions about the celebration the two of them attended, "Did you have fun with Siobhan and her friends?"
Marwa's like "OMG we went to this club it was literally underground I could feel the bass it was so fun! And then we DANCED for HOURS and you should have seen it, the mocktails are so good, and we left before Storm could climb the roof but we're told it happened and was awesome."
Mika shakes his head, smiling, makes some comment about how Storm's a rowdy guy even when he's sober. Harmless, but rowdy.
Julius makes Marwa promise to call home later, reminds her they worry. The tension with Mika has eased off a bunch by the time you part ways.
Beni lives in the same neighbourhood as Shiv, they became friends just passing each other on the street / being in the same place so often it felt weird not to say hello at a point.
Beni's a bachelor, he doesn't live with his parents like Shiv does, he has a smallish place near the edge of this sort of borough. Enroute, they swung back by the inn to take some-but-not-all of the sweeter snacks to share. Mika will comment that it's kind of familiar. He doesn't play, so if he sat in he usually just brought food for his contribution.
“Nice! Well hopefully everybody is into Aurian candies and pastries. Mom sent A LOT.”
"I'm sure they will be. Two out of three of them are sweet tooths anyway. Sweet teeth? They like candy."
“Gosh you’re cute.”
Marwa has a bounce in her step, excited to see all the friends she met last night. They hear the music as they're walking up.
Mika will knock on the door. The music keeps going, he kind of smiles and shakes his head, tries the door. It's open. He shrugs and lets you in. They enter a simple kitchen, it's got an island with pots and pans hanging above, a doorway on one side leads into what would be a front room/sitting room if Beni hadn't converted it to the Band Practice Zone, and stairs going up probably lead to bedrooms. I think when he sees movement in the kitchen Raj stops playing and a second after that the rest of the music stops.
Beni pokes his black-and-yellow scaly head in and grins a big sharp-toothed grin, "Hey, you made it!"
Fistbump for Mika, hug for Mirage.
“Good to see you guys again!” She says.
Hug is a little awkward because Beni still has his guitar slung across himself but is friendly nonetheless.
"Right back at you! Whatcha got there?" Eyeing the box in Mika’s hands.
"Snacks."
Beni peeks inside. "Nice, our drummer's sugar crashing already. Come on in, grab kitchen chairs if you want, otherwise there's cushions."
Mika will grab a chair, grips it underhand from the back like he's done it a million times before sets it against the wall just inside. As they step in Beni grabs a frosted cookie out of the box and calls, "Heads up!"
Eli catches it before he sees what it is. "Oh, sweet."
Raj is also here, seated on a cushion, holding bass in hand. He raises a hand in greeting when you come in "Hey Mika, hey Mirage. Good to see you two again."
“You too, Raj!”
She’s greeting everyone, Eli included, who's got a mouthful of cookie but he waves
“Hey man, good to see you again.”
Gulp. "G'morning!"
"Dude it's two in the afternoon" Raj laughs.
"Morning is the first three hours after waking up. Good morning."
“Oh! As someone who chronically sleeps late, I like this definition. I think I might steal it. Good morning to you too.” Mirage nods her head.
"Go for it, first one's free."
"We were just warming up," Beni says, reentering the room with the snacks they brought split onto a few plates so they can be on the low table reachable from all parties
"Any vetoes, gentlemen?" Beni asks, re-equipping his guitar
Raj is fine with anything, stands back up. "No ballads," Eli yawns, "at least not until coffee kicks in."
“That's so valid.” Mirage blurts.
"You play anything, Mirage?" Raj asks her.
“Several years of cello lessons were not enough to instill any sense of musicality in me, unfortunately, despite my parents best efforts.”
The moment feels like an air-clearer after last night’s party. It’s a less high-stim environment, they can rock out for a while, then get to chatting, how they got into their instruments. Between five people there's probably a couple conversational threads going at a time. Mirage thinks to herself that this little slice of normalcy is so nice.
They’re curious to hear what Mika has been up to
Not the Amir story, but Marwa does share some of their funnest stories about jailbreaks. The king she flipped off had her arrested because he’s a petty bitch. But she sweet talked the guard, snuck out.
Eli's tuned the fuck in on that story, snorts and say that's cheating but he's grinning its clearly not serious.
“To be honest I’m more experienced breaking INTO places than I am busting out, but you do what you have to, you know?”
"Preach,"
“What about you, Eli? Got any crazy work stories you're allowed to share?”
"Sure, everyone here's cool, yeah?"
He tells a story of breaking into the manor whose proprietor shall remain nameless, liberating some extorted goods from his safe. Eli was along as the party safecracker.
"Thing was a fucking monster. Ten by ten and most of the face was door. Pins were oiled or something - slippery, quiet. Fuckhead's damn dogs caught wind of something on the last digit, almost missed it setting with the racket they put up."
Fortunately they had druidic talent on board for that.
He's busted out of a cell a few times too, but they were all in the same jailhouse, so he doesn't really count them separate. "Different frosting, same cookie."
He doesn't have any magical tricks, or if he does he's keeping them secret. He cracks safes and picks locks by feel and sound, leaning more on one when the other's obstructed (feel if it's noisy, sound if he can't be still, etc). He's got a contrarian streak, just the presence of a "keep out" sign is enough to make him want to walk around on the other side, leave some bootprints as a fuck you
“Omg same though.”
Raj is too interested getting to know New Person, and Eli's too distracted by roguery neither of them notice especially that Mika's part in their adventuring is being deliberately talked around. Well, Eli notices but assumes its standard Mika Doesn't Like Being Centre Of Attention and pays little mind to it unless something more directly avoidant happens. Some of these stories would include Mika solving riddles, puzzling through shit
“He and Talok are the brains of the operation. I just provide the comic relief.”
Mika would give a "the rest of the team" quick cast list. He emphasizes that he works with two guys built like tanks and a lady who can turn into a grizzly bear who are handy for getting Out of a Bind.
Y'knw, just putting that out there.
Eli rolls his eyes.
"Hey Raj I've just decided I'll be at training later after all."
Beni would suggest a getting to know u game, like Never Have I Ever
“You guys have something I can drink that’s non alcoholic? Some soda or something?” No one would insist on alcohol, it's afternoon.
"It's a little early for drinks anyway" Raj agrees.
"Clockwise, then?" Beni asks.
“Who starts?” Beni starts with an easy one "never have I ever started a fire while making dinner. Or any other meal."
Eli and Raj both drink immediately. Marwa does, too.
Mika hesitates, "Does it count if-"
"Game's called Never, firebug." Eli answers.
"Fine." Mika takes a swig.
Beni's surprised, Mika shrugs "What do you want from me man, I was ten."
"Valid, mine was like, two years ago." Marwa shrugs.
Mika smiles at her fondly. Somehow even that she can't cook is cute. He remembers the few times she's tried, the almost pouty look she had as she stared down at the biohazard her recipes turned into.
It's a pleasant expression that falls a second later.
"And what were you making?" Elijah, catching Mika's eye contact and speaking so hyper-mildly that it would sound like disinterest if not for the shit-eating grin on his face.
Mika's kind of staring at him in disbelief for a second, but his tone has made it clear that the answer is funny, so now everyone's waiting.
"Sandwich."
"Oh interesting, do you need fire to make those?" Still grinning, leaning over the drums.
"You do if you want toast."
"And how hot does a stove need to be to make toast, firebug?"
"Can't stress enough, I was ten." But he's not actually mad, he's aware it was ridiculous and there's a smile under the annoyance.
"Did you forget it on the stove or something?" Beni asks.
Sigh.
"No, I just threw way too much fuel in and got too distracted watching it burn. By the time I realized how hot it had gotten it was scorching the wall behind it." A rueful chuckle, "I'm frankly super lucky Dad came home when he did."
"And people wonder how you got to be an arsonist." Smug
"You can't prove anything."
"Cause you burned the evidence."
"Never have I ever..." Raj hastily interrupts the line of teasing that is swiftly turning to banter…
Report Date
07 Aug 2025