Mingle - Emergency Potluck

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WELCOME POTLUCK

Greetings, residents! Those more observant sorts among you may have noticed a large influx of very crowded ferries. In order to welcome our new residents en masse, Town Hall is holding a potluck in Town Square. Please bring a dish if you are able and make a new friend!

All of our newest arrivals need only bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you all into our community, and may your lanterns always be lit.

This event is open to all! In light of our new influx of prospective players following the Great Sail Migration, we've decided to offer a small public event to tide everyone over until the TDM this weekend.

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri reads over the cards with his hands clasped behind his back; no need to risk breaking anything. His expression is pale, but warms the further he reads. When he looks up at Anzu, it's with a flicker of a smile.

"It's been far too long since I saw anything like food from home."

[amourtician]

Anzu takes a long, careful look at Dimitri, concludes that it's impossible to tell for sure where and who exactly he might mean by home, briefly considers the fact that Dimitri could be Tatar like his grandfather-in-law, and after all this internal debate, reluctantly decides on speaking Emran for the time being, figuring he can do some fishing to confirm whether he and Dimitri share any other languages in common–later.

"I'm glad, dearest," he says. "This place, 'tis very strange by me and mine husband both. The comfort of anything familiar is priceless, nu?"

He jumps off the table and approaches Dimitri.

"Hast thou been here long, then?"

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri turns pink at being called 'dearest', and has to clear his throat before answering.

"Not long at all -- only a day or so. If you've heard of the ship that many of the new arrivals escaped from, I'm another of those." He presses his lips together and shakes his head. "Anywhere would be better than that place. Marrow Island has animals, and that alone is ... it's an unimaginable relief."

[amourtician]

"I heard of the ship, yes, dear," Anzu says, and for a second he looks troubled. "Would'st thou be relieved to know I felt no ill wind come, save nu, ah," he spreads his hands, to indicate the isle in general, "the usual for here? Which, between thee and me, is only hardly worse than any small town out in the boonies. Merely gloomy, davka the unconsummated deaths."

He looks at Dimitri very seriously for a moment, judging whether he wants to get into how strange this place feels to him. He decides against it. Now's maybe not the time.

Instead, he says, "the wildlife here is ordinary enough, bar some ... ah, novelties. But feh. Most of such, perfectly harmless if thou give'st them space and try not to steal their offspring."

OOC: davka here used to mean "despite".

[prince_of_beasts]

"Only a few days. It seems I arrived later than the rest ... which does give me hope that others have yet to follow me. There are several faces missing ... but I shouldn't trouble you with such things. We're at a celebration." Dimitri shakes his head, and turns up the corners of his mouth in an attempt at a smile. "That is good to hear. My home is prone to attacks by giant beasts in the winter -- creatures that prefer to mind their own business, as animals do, sound far more manageable."

[amourtician]

"It's a celebration, but it is a weekday," Anzu says, gently; his expression is serious. But as well as reassuring Dimitri, he is fishing a little, despite himself. "Shunt not aside the wish to talk of grave matters on mine account, darling. Now, if thou wish'st not to dwell on gloomy thoughts, that's something else entirely."

"But ah, all that aside, before we get into talk of ships and wild beasts, what do I call thee? If I ask not now, I fear I shall forget entirely."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Oh!" Dimitri's posture snaps to attention; he bows, the memorized movement crisp and martial. "Dimitri Alexander, at your service. What may I call you?"

[amourtician]

Oh, bugger. Of course it was too much to hope that the lad would give an unambiguous name.

Anzu bows in return — left hand over the right side of his chest, where his heart is — and says, "I'm called Anzu Tamiratovitsh, if thou find'st familiar address difficult, when talking to one much older than thee. If that's no concern, my name's Anzu."

"And how prefer'st thou to be addressed, darling? I have mine own rubrics, of course, but I do prefer to respect the traditions of others, where possible."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Anzu Tamiratovitsh," Dimitri echoes. He preens, just a little, at being given the choice; it feels like being taken seriously, and he's on the cusp of adulthood where that isn't common. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Anzu."

As to the other question ... he pauses, frowning. "I'm not sure I've ever been asked. Just 'Dimitri' is alright, but I don't mind nicknames. I'll answer to just about anything."

[amourtician]

"It's a pleasure to meet thee, too, Dima," says Anzu. "Shake'st thou hands? I usually ask for a very different reason, but here, it so happens many might not know the gesture in the first place, nu?"

For the matter of names, he decides to give up being sneaky — he's clearly still as bad as subterfuge as he's always been — and just explain things to the poor lad.

"As for thy name ... well, nu. I have heard both names in the world I was born in, not too rarely given to children born into my people. The latter more than the former, perhaps, though the former was not uncommon among those what came to us as adults."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dima. He thinks that's a new one. It's a good feeling, that he's heard enough nicknames to be unsure.

"Shaking hands isn't the custom I grew up with, but I don't mind it." Dimitri's not sure if he should offer his; on whose behalf did Anzu ask?

... the matter drops out of his mind as Anzu brings up names. Dimitri winces, less of a movement than a sudden stilling of motion. Clearly Anzu's words carry a layer of meaning Dimitri lacks the context to understand; he does understand that he's lied, and he's been caught in that lie, in this crowded place full of people and chatter and tables and meat, and the lack of ceiling is not the comfort it was a few moments ago.

Quietly, something behind Dimitri's eyes clicks, goes glassy and distant. His voice turns fainter, monotone, a clipped arch creeping over his rounded vowels and heavy consonants. "Ah, forgive me -- in truth, Alexandre is my middle name, not my family name." He flicks a glance up at something in the middle distance, at the level of the rooftops, then back down at the dishes on offer. Vegetables weren't common at the Master's Table, except as a garnish for flesh. Dimitri swallows, mouth dry, fighting to focus. "I spent some time in a ... a place where giving one's true name was ... not safe. A-and this place is far from that one," he does not sound certain, "but dining among strangers calls the memory too close for comfort. I meant no deception -- forgive me."

[amourtician]

Anzu raises an eyebrow; he can tell Dimitri has half-wandered off into memories of a place much worse than their present location (the ship again, he assumes, wrongly), but he can't quite follow why introducing oneself with one name rather than another would be a deception.

"Darling, I don't go around asking people to call me what my family calls me, nu?" he says, gently. "By us back home, one has a civic name, and a name for the beys medresh, and the two may not be the name one's family uses, neither. And that's ah, not even getting into the matters of ... why one may want to change one's name, and live as someone other than what their family assumed they'd live as, nu?"

And only belatedly does it occur to him that Dimitri might be fearing something, well, supranatural. Something that might be technically Anzu's job to deal with, if it were to turn up in his neighbourhood, but something that he's rarely even heard of.

"If thou'rt concealing thy name for fear of a gentry other than mortal, darling," he says, "I should rather hope the old lady what let us in here is as discerning as she looks. But ... nu. Worry not. I'll call thee what thou ask'st me to call thee, and none of my business as to the reason behind such a request."

[prince_of_beasts]

Anzu is gentle, and patient. No punishment follows, nor the threat of it. No drooling double maw turns in Dimitri's direction.

Dimitri blinks, once, hard, and shakes himself. The potluck slips into place around him. He shakes his head again.

"F-forgive the odd question," he says -- his voice fades in and out of his own accent and that strange interloper -- "but would you tell me where I am?" Softer, as though he's afraid of the answer: "What color are my eyes?"

[amourtician]

Anzu frowns, concerned for Dimitri, but responds to his request without hesitation.

"They're blue, darling," he says. "A rather more subdued colour than I'm used to, but ah, that seems to be the case with most here. It seems luminescent eyes are, nu. An oddity common only by a few worlds."

[prince_of_beasts]

Blue. Dimitri shakes himself a final time, rubs a hand over his face, and relaxes. "Thank you," he says, restraining himself from apologizing again. He considers trying to explain, but he's reluctant to take up any more space than he has, and 'I had my appearance traumatically overhauled by faerie surgeons' is a lot to drop on someone he's barely met.

"As to what you mentioned earlier, ah ... I'm from the kingdom of Faerghus, in the north of the continent of Fódlan. I don't suppose that sounds familiar?"

[amourtician]

Anzu sighs, half with relief and half because he feels a little foolish.

"It sounds not familiar, darling," he says. "But, ah. Still, I find it interesting how it seems we both thought we may have been born under the same moon, nu?"

[prince_of_beasts]

"People do seem to invent similar things across many worlds. It's comforting, I think, that we can find such familiarity even far from home." Dimitri takes a second look over the dishes and their labels. "The country you're from -- is it a cold one? Difficult to farm? We share several staples, though I don't recognize all of these terms."

[amourtician]

"Feh ... ah. The place I'm from is part of an empire so vast, 'tis difficult to make any one statement of it," Anzu says, thoughtfully. "But certainly much of it has harsh winters, and much of it has poor soil. I know little of farming. I was born in a city, and in a city I shall hopefully die."

He glances away from Dimitri, so as not to scrutinise him too hard, and potentially unsettle him. "But certainly, thy name I've heard before, back home. It's, nu. The name of the solar saint after whom the capitol of that empire was named."