[open]

[hymnals]

Who: Adrasteius; perhaps you
When: 3/5 - 3/15
Where: Throughout Caissa
What: Working hard for the money; inciting the youth; picking pretty flowers
Rating: None



meet & greet; a

[ Sadly, Adrasteius is not the one with the arms. He does have a cascade of thick, lovely hair, though, and the children of this particular school cluster around him, petting him as though he's some kind of cat. But because they're nearly half his already meager height, and because they literally do not know any better, Adra doesn't feel his usual threatened agitation. He's not exactly enjoying himself, but he'll tolerate it. So long as their stubby fingers keep away from his ears. ]

--my people live in a city full of magic, just like yours. There are grand, cream and gold spires everywhere, decorated with enormous rubies that reflect so well it'll dazzle your eyes right out of your head if you look at them directly. Animated brooms sweep our streets, and the lanes of the city are dotted with huge, potted ferns that float. You can find anything you like in the central bazaar--not just armor and weapons, but food spiced with spells, rare books, and potions that'll turn you into things you can't even imagine. We cast magic with every breath. It's as much a part of our bodies as, say, our eyes.

[ He gestures to his own--glowing bright, pupils barely visible. ]

Or yours.

[ It's a rosy picture he's painting. Many things about Silvermoon are not so enchanting as he's describing. He doesn't mention the constructs that patrol the city, barking propaganda ('Happiness is mandatory, citizen.'). The guards who drag people from their beds to harass them on the street. The dens of demonic magic. The brainwashing, done out in the open, sanctioned by their absent prince. Adra's wise enough to know that such things are not for children's ears. So he smiles as he talks, genuine, but undercut with sorrow.

Not that he has time to dwell. The kids just keep piling on, fascinated by his unique physiology, and he might be starting to panic. ]

Not the ears, please!

meet & greet; b

[ Of course, he can't resist deviating from the script just a bit. When it comes time to talk about the pseudo-mana potion, Adra segues into it as best he knows how. ]

--now, not everything in my world is perfect. We do have some bad men running around, doing all kinds of bad things. And they get away with it! Can you imagine?

[ He taps his right earlobe. ]

Now, I hear you have a similar problem, children. Bad men trying to sell you a lie. You can't let them. You have to question everything put to you, okay? It doesn't matter if it's an adult, or what kind of title that adult claims to have. You have the right to think. You have the right to decide for yourself--and you should never bow to outside pressure. Not from a shady salesman, not from us 'heroes', not even your teachers. Understand?

[ A tiny chorus of 'yeahs!' comes in response. The supervising teacher might look a little worried. Maybe someone should step in and soften up the rhetoric? ]


herbing;

[ You'd best believe that Adrasteius spent some of his colle on gardening tools. Just a few things: a small hand spade, a little knife for cutting stems, as well as twine and burlap for carrying specimens. True, he lives in a cramped room with a bunch of other people and an obvious zero-lot line, but he's hoping he can claim a patch of earth for himself, someday. In the meantime, he's happy for the opportunity to familiarize himself with the local flora. He'd spent yesterday reading, observing, and making drawings; now, this morning, he's ready to go.

Back in Azeroth, Adrasteius collected herbs of every kind, and then milled them to make brilliant inks. Twilight purple, carmine, shimmering emerald. Colors infused with actual magic, pressed into the pages of handcrafted spellbooks.

Potions were a secondary concern, but in either case, he understands the importance of a properly handled plant. Gathering itself wasn't the problem. The problem is that Adrasteius remains hilariously frail of constitution, and he simply doesn't have the stamina to carry back what he's digging up.

He realizes this as he sits among a particular patch of herbs, his hair already damp with sweat from digging, his hands dark with soil. ]

Damn it. I'm going to have to start lifting things while standing in place like an idiot.

[ He paws at the soil, agitated. ]

Eating protein. Running.

[ Life is terrible. ]

Comments

herbing;

[probending]

[Who needs gardening tools when you're the Avatar? She's been yanking out plants rather roughly, and uh... slipping out as quietly as possible. She hasn't been caught yet.

That is, until she runs into the glowing noodle from the festival. She's got a smaller bag full of herbs slung across her shoulder and she's ready to pick more. He, on the other hand, seems to be having trouble.]

Hey.

[She smiles and sets her bag down.]

Why don't we work together?

plants-ing!

[long_live_the_queen]

[It surprised Kaede how many plants she had dismissed as scruffy, generic weedy things by the canals turned out to be on the list. Especially in shadier places, where the water kept the air substantially cooler than elsewhere. Others had had the same idea as herself, though, and finding patches of plants that hadn't been picked over required some legwork.

The horned woman had been taking her time with picking each one, too, easing the plants out of the ground like she was weeding the garden at Maple House again. There was dirt under her nails, and only tool she'd managed to borrow was a gardening fork that had seen better days many, many years ago. That, a small bag of already-collected plants. and a small stick, though the stick wasn't for digging.

Kaede tossed it idly without paying much attention to its direction, and the brown and white spotted dog that was her Carrier went tearing off after it like a furry torpedo, barking cheerfully.

...the stick might be flying at Adrasteius, oops.]

meet and greet A

[topkong]

Not gonna lie, Addie. That sounds great and all, but I can't imagine magic food tastes any better than the freshly prepared, hand-made kind. Not to mention it can't possibly be good for the digestive system.

[ Strolling into the room, Wukong had been listening to the story that the elf had been telling. It sounded wonderful, but he's always had a healthy skepticism of the most ideal places--- and when it comes to magic, even more cynicism. Much like any power, it can be easily corrupted!

Though, let's not talk about Wukong's origins. Natural magic is totally purer than arcane magics.

He does enter at the right time, specifically when Adra basically tells Wukong his weak point, something that would have taken him a longer time to figure out if it wasn't exclaimed at the children. So now? He has a mission.

A mission to touch them ears. ]

m&g a!

[sunderings]

Pray tell, why not the ears?

[ —echoes a voice from somewhere amid the sea of children, its owner none other than the Hero King, Sion Astal, who has done a superb job of blending in with the young ones until now! He sits lotus-legged upon the classroom floor, one of the quieter tots settled upon his lap (and the little lass seems to be rather taken with the thick plait of his silver hair...! or rather, dismantling it, beginning first with the tie before loosening the lowermost sections of the braid), his golden eyes mischievous and alight.

For he'd heard it where the children did not, the melancholy which would always lace so beautiful an illustration, so pretty a picture: nothing so bright, in this or any realm, is without its shades of darkness, after all.

And so he would continue on, words lilting with a light-of-heart tease: ]

Inquiring minds have a mighty need to know...!

option a!

[digophelia]

[ The new job was easy and Alice took to it well. She was going to make a point to be on a first name basis with these children. Out of any given tasks given out, caring and entertaining the children had to be her favorite.

It made her feel better about herself and, more importantly, it helped ease the guilt that she harbored for the children she left behind. Compared to the children in London, they seemed happier, more alive.

Though, they weren't suffering and their minds weren't being erased by someone. Alice was in good spirits; she had been with them for several hours, playing games and telling them stories to them. When she heard his voice, Alice came over, a slight smile touching her lips. ]

What is all this? Are you some sort of cat, now?

[ Followed by childish giggles, Alice started to give a shooing gesture to some of them, in hopes to get them off. But children don't always listen. ]

Ah, come on, now, leave him be -- what's wrong with your ears?

herbs! (before expo)

[quaria]

[ Not far from the elf Hero, Setsuna is quietly working on collecting his own bundle of herbs. Unused to this kind of labor, it's visible that he's kind of clumsy with certain movements. There are times wherein he takes a pause to figure out how to pull a certain root, but overall he seems to be doing fine. He's treating each plant with extreme care, not wanting to damage any of them...

He did overhear the elf's mumbling, but he minds his own business politely. He did notice that they're both Heroes, so to be fair he thought the other Hero was talking about his training routine. It's best not to intrude on someone else's personal schedule. Eventually, he manages enough herbs to fit in his plant bag. He closes it, then stands up as he hauls the very heavy-looking bag with a mere single arm. ]

m&g b

[seventhgen]

[Aigis has mostly been helping shepherd the children; she's covered from head to toe so it's not easy to tell that she's a machine, but some of the kids have discovered that if not mechanical, her body is either armored... or just very hard. Still, that was a brief curiosity, and for the most part it's uneventful. She listens to the strange man speak for a while. He's rather charismatic, she thinks.

And what he says is true, as well. She thinks of Ikutsuki, of how all of SEES was fooled by his duplicity. Of how he almost made her kill her comrades.

But he does seem to be a little over the top...] Surely their teachers are only meaning to educate them! They can be trusted, can't they?

herbing

[flirtations]

[ Unlike Adra, who had done his homework and was going about this job in an entirely methodical fashion, Jae-had had decided to just wing it. How much more different could the plants in this place be? He's observed Yoon a few times now, felt that he knew enough of the basics to be able to pick some decent herbs, and was going to rely on those instincts.

Quantity, rather than quality, was his approach. With his high jump, he could cover vast distances in short amounts of time, and though he might not be able the find the most rare herbs, surely he could find enough to fill his bag.

He hasn't gotten too far on this task when he spots Adra from high up in the air. He remembers the man from earlier, in Palamede-- the healer. A beautiful man, with enough knowledge to keep them alive during the commotion, so he had much to be grateful for. He's struggling; even from up here, Jae-ha can see that much, and that alone would be enough to descend and offer him a hand.

But, he's struck with an idea.

He descends quickly, landing in a crouch a few feet in front of Adra (and thankfully, not smashing any of the herb patch). He rises, giving Adra a small, friendly wave. ]

It must be fate that I found you here so soon after our ordeal in Palamède, Sir... Adrasteius? [ Well look, he didn't butcher it completely. ] I have a proposition for you.