Electric Boogaloo

[tiredcharmer]

Who: Tyzias and YOU!
Where: All around Anastara and Diatu
When: Late October
What: Tyzias arrives at Diatu and is thoroughly unimpressed.
Warnings: Curmudgeonliness abounds, lots of swearing.



attention, attention everyone
Anastara, being built around a Magicademy full of mischievous and/or incompetent students, is no stranger to ridiculous happenings. Especially in recent months with the arrival of the Sundered. As such, residents have a high tolerance for magical shenanigans and associated weirdness. But it is extremely difficult to simply ignore a round boulder being pulled at high speeds down the street by a pair of extremely large trolls.

Said trolls have at least a passing knowledge of traffic laws, so thankfully nobody is hurt. But an entrance like that draws attention—which is exactly what Tyzias doesn't want. When her chaffeurs crack the rock open at the academy, Tyzias tumbles out of her luxury transportation (really, it's quite posh inside, the Troll Lord of Okanes isn't a barbarian) and lands flat on her back before the gates of Diatu, staring at the sky.

After a twenty-three second sustained groan, Tyzias grumbles, "Sweet fucking Sufferer, Grumbrig, I know you wanted to give me the 'royal treatment' but that's a little overboard." She laboriously tries to pull herself to her feet. And fails. "Fuuuuuuuck dust got all in my shirt fuck fuck fuck HEY YOU CAN YOU HELP ME UP HERE"

see through bloodshot eyes
Now that she's finally someplace that might be able to get her on track to find some answers, there's no way in... whatever this world's punitive afterlife is that Tyzias is going to waste it on something as trivial as sleep. So it is that it's three AM in the morning and she's still poring through dozens of books by flashlight in the common room, mumbling to herself in a haze as she flips through page after page. Her choice of reading material is eclectic: basic textbooks for beginning mages, advanced theses on Intimation, a few tomes about Sundering, swathes of world history, Osmarius grammar, prayer books, and more. Tyzias is practically buried in a blanket of notes.

Then she sweeps her arm across the table to diagram a High Osmarius phrase, accidentally hits a stack of books, and it all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down. While she doesn't go down with the ship, all of Tyzias's study material crash to the floor. The thud that echoes through the hallways is deafening.

Tyzias muffles her scream by planting her face on the table, then sighs, hauls herself to her feet after much effort, and begins slowly putting everything back in order as she braces herself for the inevitable mob of furious students who were just aroused by the chaos. Hopefully whoever finds her first isn't too angry...

wwwwhen you held the knife
Tyzias looks at the supply list in her hand, then at the rack of wands, then at the list again, then she groans. "You know what would've been fantastic? If Teach actually told me what I needed for class. Outlined a clear, concise list of Factors that I need to make the magic shit happen. But no. 'Discovery foci.' What am I supposed to get? Bat guano? I mean, okay, I know that all I need is a book and a wand, I'm not that dumb, but what wand? The one that magically calls out to me or some shit?" Tyzias throws up her hands in frustration.

"You. You have any idea how I'm supposed to pick one of these things? I know this place's reputation, there's no way I'm just gonna snag one off of the shelf there and call it a day."

Comments

i'm so sorry this is just what she's like

[tiredcharmer]

Pure, stubborn, bullheaded, and occasionally idiotic determination is a trait Tyzias and Pallidus share. Considering that Tyzias literally owes her life to not knowing when to give up, maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Unfortunately for him, Pallidus is uncannily similar to what used to be Tyzias's mortal nemesis. Before, you know, she got mortal nemeses that actually made good on their threats and killed her. "You know, if you keep giving off these absolutely rancid vibes, I might keep calling you Sore-Gor. You're kinning him pretty hard right now. What's your name, anyways?"

With great effort, Tyzias picks up a particularly hefty tome and carefully places it on top of a stack. "Eh, it was learn how to handle all of this," she gestures in the direction of the personal library that Tyzias has been collecting, "or get culled back on Alternia. And as satisfying as it would've been to stick it to the man and, fuck, IDK, rot my brain out on sopor and go to punk concerts instead, I value my life too highly for that."

Beat.

"Also books are cool."

[princepallidus]

Ah. Okay then, so no jokes. He wasn't sure what half of those things she said meant, but he was fairly certain they were rude.

Lips pursed, Pallidus took a deep breath through his nose and released it slowly. When he spoke again, his voice was tight. "I am Prince Pallidus, firstborn of Zinzo, King of the Dark Creatures, Lord over all Magic, and Emperor of the Night Sky Above and the Dark Cavern Below. Might I inquire after your own name, Miss?"

He might also be using his innate shape shifting to make himself loom a littler taller that before. It was a childish reaction, but he felt he deserved to be a little petulant after being described as "rancid."

Straightening some papers, Pallidus huffed, trying to cool down. He didn't have anywhere near the temper of his father, at least.

"... I can agree on that point. My entire family loves books." It was a love instilled in him and his brothers by their mother. Even Viribus, who couldn't read more than a few sentences at a time without getting sick, still appreciated a good story when he could get one.

Damn, but he couldn't go without at least apologizing for his own rudeness, even if it was deserved. "I was actually up here looking to find something to read. I... apologize for getting in your way."

[tiredcharmer]

"Tyzias Entykk, Hero of Light, Heir of Blood, Calamity-Touched, Slayer of the Lord of Time, Dragonlord, Queensguard, Runner-up of the City's Speed Dueling Friendship Cup..." Tyzias pauses, then flashes Pallidus a shit-eating grin. "Nah, man. Just screwing with you. I'm the Lady of Fuckall." Okay, maybe that's a blatant lie, because technically all of those titles do apply to her, but she was never really a fan of them. "But for realsies, yeah, my name is Tyzias. You dad sounds like an interesting dude, tho."

Yawning, Tyzias gets up and stretches, working out a crick in her back. When she's not hunching over at a ninety-degree angle, she's... wow, she's actually pretty damn tall herself. "Seriously, it's no prob, Bob. Us night owls have gotta stick together." She cocks her head to the side, considering. "Does it really count as night-owling if I stay up at all hours of the day too? Eh, whatever." It seems that Tyzias isn't actually hostile to Pallidus's presence. She's just... like that.

[princepallidus]

Tyzias' jump from seemingly-hostile to seemingly-friendly is taking all the wind out of Pallidus' sails. Where he was starting to get aggravated, now all he feels is confusion. He wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

"Miss Entykk, then," Pallidus says, not willing to let another Ty into his life just yet no matter how different they were. "Unfortunately for me, I am not nearly so interesting as my father."

To be fair to Pallidus, Zinzo was several hundreds of years old whereas Pallidus was only 27.

"I don't suppose it does count, but back home this late hour would be considered the 'day' for my people." Not sure if he's still welcome, Pallidus steps back a bit but hesitates, curious. "... Do you not need sleep?"

[tiredcharmer]

"I mean, the fact that you're here at all means that you're interesting to someone, right? And being a prince of the underworld or whatever means that you're a helluva lot more interesting than me." Beat. Tyzias has to resist the urge to say badumtish out loud.

She can sympathize with Pallidus's consternation at her demeanor. A defensive mechanism used to keep everybody away so she could conduct her research in peace back home didn't translate so well to making actual friends. Tyzias should probably try to tone it down, but... even a full sweep after leaving Alternia, old habits are hard to break.

"Oh, yeah. The sun's quite literally deadly fucking lasers basically kill anything that isn't already a corpse on my planet during the daytime. So, uh. Same worm. As for whether I need sleep... eh. Technically yes? But I'm an endurance insomniac; it'll take wwwway more than one sleepless night to KO me."

[princepallidus]

Wow, a compliment! Two in fact, even if one was literally used in a way to belittle herself. But still, that was some form of movement against the avalanche of insults she hurled at him earlier in the conversation. Pallidus pushes a strand of hair behind his ear, feeling a little sheepish.

"Ah, that's quite interesting. The sun's light is natural for most creatures back home, but Shadow Demons like myself are deathly allergic to it." If something terrified his father, then it was surely something that was not to be trifled with. "My youngest brother managed to survive up there during the dawn, somehow, possibly due to our mix of elven blood. But father was not pleased to hear about him taking such a risk."

Endurance insomniac, eh? That didn't sound healthy, but she wasn't the same kind of creature as himself. "Are you sure you shouldn't allow yourself at least a few hours of sleep? Won't you fall ill?"

[tiredcharmer]

"Mmmm. Interesting." Tyzias scribbles down something in a leatherbound dark purple journal marked with the symbol on Tyzias's shirt. It definitely wasn't in any of the stacks or piles before. So where did she get it? "What's your world's name?"

Tyzias waves away Pallidus's concern. It's touching, really, even if she has to forcibly divorce his words from the memories she has of the concern-trolling that Tagora inflicted on Tyzias during some particularly long study shifts that she'd pulled. "Eh, don't worry about it. I have a hearty constitution, believe it or not. I've stayed up wwwway longer than this with, like. Zero issue."

There's not actually a name for the world at large so we can just go with "Cavernae" if that's okay

[princepallidus]

He's somewhat interested in the strange rune on her book and jacket, but he doesn't feel like pushing too much right now. She's still only an acquaintance. He won't gain anything being rude, but being nice doesn't seem to be winning him points either.

"Cavernae. Also known as the Underworld, to those who live Above." Pallidus may not have ever seen the Upperworld outside of the glimpses he caught through the magic mirror, but that didn't mean he never would. Maybe someday, through some miracle or through a war, it would come to pass.

"If you insist then, I won't badger your about it." Now that all of her books were back in place, he glances around the room to the various stacks of unclaimed tomes and puzzles over where to start. "I'll leave you to your reading."

I feel like Palli infodumping about his world is a good place to end, wby?

[tiredcharmer]

Tyzias's handwriting is literally illegible, being a combination of shorthand, alien language, and good ol' fashioned chickenscratch. Even with the Sundereds' mysterious auto-translating abilities, it's doubtful that Pallidus could read it.

But if he could, he'd find a startlingly extensive chronicle of every world that Tyzias has visited, studied, or even vaguely heard of; complete with surprisingly neat (if not particularly artistic) sketches. The journal is Tyzias's primary hobby outside of heroic feats, complaining, and studying. If she can find some unifying thread between all worlds, even those not touched by the Calamity, then maybe, just maybe, she could...

When Pallidus mentions that his home is belowground, Tyzias frowns thoughtfully, makes a note, and flips to a different page. This world's illustration features a skeleton, two nearly-identical children, and a family of goat monsters, all divided into different timelines. "No no no no. I'm curious, were there, like. Any other species in Cavernae? Or was it just the Shadow Demons?"

works for me!

[princepallidus]

Pallidus realizes quickly that Tyzias is probably trying to keep notes for herself, and as it is a private journal he is too gentlemanly to try for a peek. Though it does make him curious. Perhaps he'll ask her about it another day.

As long as she's interested, he's perfectly happy to explain about his home. "Oh, there were many, many others. Humans tend to fear creatures that aren't like themselves, so Cavernae became a sort of safe haven for all who no longer wished to wage war over the land above..."

[And he goes on and on, etc. if you need more details we can hash that out whenevs.]