One leg folded over another, Knap luxuriously reclines on a cafe chair, sips a coffee and nibbles a pastry and discourses with Malvyn about beasts and monsters, natures and nurture, the infernal and the divine.
“Mal, have you ever worried there is something dark in your nature? You know, a dark side?” He asks forgetting for a moment Mal has frequently had to fight such assumptions made about him.
"What do you want, Mei? I'm starving though so I think I'd prefer the restaurant down the way, but if you don't want that I'm sure I can content myself with the cafe over here. But either way let's go before I pass out from being hungry." She gave a smile though at her floor mate.
Mei eyes are the size of dinner plates as she sees the advertisement. She whispers reverently, "Waffles," then grabs Mae's hand and hurries down the street to the restaurant. "We're getting waffles down the street," she Messages to the satyr and tiefling as they pass.
Mei insists on paying for Maeleve's breakfast as they order and, after much debate with herself and the swallowing of ample guilt, orders a waffle piled high with every topping they have.
Mae gave a little "oop" as she was suddenly dragged off down the street. She giggled a bit as Mei rushed them off for waffles and didn't put up a fuss when she insisted on paying for their food. She ordered a wide variety of things, from pancakes and sausages to fruits and tubers, with a fruity spritzer to wash it all down. She took her time eating though, trying to savor the various flavors and sensations, and grateful they weren't eating dried bread again. "Are waffles important where you're from, Mei?" She asked after they had a chance to dig in a while.
The message is cast twice so that both Malvynand Knapmight receive it. It does just get to them.
As Meidrags Maealong, you can see that this restaurant is relatively busy. It takes a few moments for a hostess, a young half-elf woman, to speak with you. It's then a few more minutes to get seated. But the wait is not really all that long. Soon a waiter comes over, a young satyr man. He seems to take Mae's order in stride but puzzles a bit over Mei's requestion. "Are you sure you want all of them? All of them together?" He appears to write down your order, then stops. "So. That is all eight kinds of fruit? And then there's the thin-sliced ham with egg and hollandaise, the cottage cheese and roasted vegetables, and avocado, tomato, jalapeno ones. You want those too? Plus we have the frosted waffles - chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla flavored. Oh, and the cinnamon frosted waffles are a big favorite. I just... I mean... together?"
He really looks like his head cannot handle having all of that put together.
Guardok spins around looking for a clock. "Late? Oh dear, I thought I would make it just on time", he says sheepishly.
He then watches as Conys leads the first group through, preparing to follow. This is only the second time he has been teleported, and he is gets a little buzz of excitement, shifting from foot to foot as he waits. "What happens if you jump just as they are teleporting you? Do you need to be touching the ground for it to work?", he whispers to Zanther.
Before his fellow genasi can answer, the landscape changes, not dramatically as they are still in an urban area, but it is certainly noticeably different.
"Have you been here before Zanther? Have I asked you that already?", he says, his excitement still obvious as he follows along.
Mei wonders what Cadoras would do. No doubt he'd order all the toppings together, but she wasn't quite as adventurous as her green-haired friend, and so asks for two separate waffles, one for savory toppings and the other, a frosted cinnamon, for sweet. She remembers at the last moment to ask him to hold the meat!
She takes a far larger bite than the small human should be able to handle for her size, fork full of waffle, fruit, and whipped cream. She's largely abstained from sweets at the university but seems very much to be making up for it now.
After a bit of hurried chewing, she answers from behind her hand, "O-Only in that I've never been allowed to have them." After a sip of coffee, she uses a clean spoon to shovel a bite of her waffle and toppings onto Mae's plate to try. "My grandmother says our bodies are the temple that supports the altar of our minds. And that sugar will--" she gesticulates to her head and makes a small explosion sound, whipped cream flying from the spoon.
"What about you? Did you have any, um... restrictions? Back home?"
Mae looked at Mei with a bit of surprise as she spoke, first at the nearly absurd order and then at the explanation for her waffle desire. "Oh, how interesting. I think we said something like -what's good for the body is good for the mind is good for the soul-, but I don't recall any specific foods being prohibited. I was never overly fond of sweets though, so perhaps that was a good thing."Mae thought a moment in a slow chew as she wiped off bits of whipped cream from Mei's spoon. "Course I suppose for a long time I was also inundated with treats and I didn't have the stomach for them all so I just didn't care to see or taste them anymore. This food is pretty good though."
"I'll remember not to make you something sweet for your birthday then," she says with a little grin. Mei thinks about how different their upbringings must have been--though perhaps two sides of the same coin--as she takes a bite next of her savory waffle. "What about... other restrictions? Like... um... staying out late or traveling? Or--" color creeps up across her cheeks, "--d-dating?"
Mae put her silverware down, took a sip of her drink and laid her arms across each other on the table. "I suppose it depends on your definition of restriction. My parents were not overly obsessed with keeping me in, not for a long time anyway. Eventually any restriction was largely my own doing, not theirs. I was often out late because that's when taverns and performing venues are open to performances, and I only traveled in a limited fashion for an engagement and returned home promptly."She sat back a bit and darkened some. "My parents were...understanding, I think, when it came to dating. As in, they supported me not doing it for the most part. Again though, that was more my doing than theirs."
"Every day and night growing up my friend...."The purple-.skinned tiefling answers, surprised over how he was not struck with anxiety over being asked about this subject, a testament to how much had happened since he came to Strixhaven and how relatively secure he felt in the company of his friends, yes, he actually considered himself having friends now. "...but less and less of late. These thoughts have haunted me and I have thought about it frequently. My conclusion is that we all have something dark in ourselves, but with most of us the light prevails, for some it is a struggle more than for others I suspect. I can only assume having friends to support oneself can help with that struggle." He continues with a warm smile, finishing his first cup of coffee and ordering a second. "Just say if you think we should join the girls or if you prefer to stay here, I'm fine either way."
Mei's brows pinch together with concern over her friend's darkening expression. Not wishing to make her dwell on sad things, she pivots. "Your feelings on that have... changed, though?" she asks, lips pursing against a smile as she gives Maeleve a knowing look beneath her lashes.
She cuts a quarter of what's left of her savory waffle--now knowing she doesn't care much for sweets--and deposits it on Mae's plate for trying next. It's quite apparent by now that feeding others is one of her love languages. "Green does go beautifully with your coloring" she teases.
Mae watched Mei push more food onto her already full plate but didn't comment on it, but took a small bite as she listened. With a light sigh of resignation she finally spoke, "No, not particularly. Oh don't get me wrong, Larine is sweet in her own way and I do enjoy what time we've been able to spend together but...I don't know yet, Mei. When your memories are full of almost nothing but people that want you and want to use you for all the wrong reasons it gets hard to...trust anyone." A small tear appeared in the corner of her bright blue eyes.
Mei sets her utensils down and reaches across the table to take her friend's hand. Love isn't like it is in her books. She'd learned that the hard way since coming here. But hers was a far gentler lesson compared to what Mae has been through. Beauty is surely a double-edged sword, though, being no great beauty herself, she's yet to feel how sharp.
Her features soften as she holds Mae's gaze. "I think trust is.. like a mirror. When it's broken, you can never look at it the same again. But..." she looks around the restaurant, observing the people around them. Their expressions. Their body language. Their patterns. "Maybe it's better. Because then you have to look more closely at it--at all the little pieces, instead of the big picture. And I think that's where trust lives. In tiny moments, instead of big, sweeping ones."
Her eyes are slowly drawn back to Mae and, suddenly shy, she smiles apologetically and focuses on her food again. "Sorry, th-that's--er... I must sound so hopelessly idealistic. I know trust and love are much more nuanced than that, but.. you deserve to be wanted for the right reasons. For you. And I hope you'll still be open to someone who works to prove it." It's after a moment that she says with a heated grumble and a particularly hard stab of her waffles, "And warts and curses on the others."
Mae listened and then shrugged slightly, patting Mei's hand a bit. "Honestly, Mei, I wasn't particularly that interested to begin with, and people just didn't help that feeling. It why I ended up at Strixhaven to begin with. I suppose one thing I do like about Larine is that she doesn't try that hard I guess. I love performing, Mei, that's what I want to do more than anything. I wasn't able to just do that back home." She got a small smile, "And yes, curses on the others. I'm assuming you weren't allowed to be with others then back home?"
Mei shakes her head and sinks a bit in her seat. "N-No. My studies and training were priority. And, well... at home I'm sort of seen as..." she pushes a bit of fruit around her plate, "cursed. Because of the death Dreams. Most people think I'm a bad omen."
"B-but anyways! Is that what you want to do after Strixhaven? Tour and travel?" She brightens, "Or join a troupe like Guardok's circus? Every time he talks about it, I think of how exciting a life like that would be."
Mae nodded a little and took another slow bite. "Ironic, I think. You were thought to be cursed for dreams, I was thought to be blessed for more tangible reasons, yet both of us found a need to leave. But I don't think you're a bad omen. You can't control what you dream, can you?" Mae poked at some of her remains and then took another sip.
When the conversation shifted she sat back in thought. "I'm not really sure, Mei. I can't go back home anytime soon though, so I suppose traveling will have to do, which is fine. For so long my life was dictated to me I barely ever had time to think about what I might want to do with my life. I suppose I could see myself doing that, traveling on my own from town to town, performing as I will. I rather enjoy the showband though too, so I think if there was a place like that somewhere I would enjoy that as well, but I really don't know. I do know that life on the road can be very hard though too." Mae looked a little lost in thought for a moment. "I'm sorry, what about you? I had a mentor that was a wizard. He helped me get to Strixhaven. What do you want to do?"
"You have lots of time to decide," she encourages, wondering what thoughts the aasimar is lost in. "And I could always do a reading for you too! I-If you'd ever like some extra insight."
Stuffed full of waffles and toppings, the Dreamer sets her utensils and napkin on the plates to indicate she's finished with her meal then reclines back in her chair. She gives herself a bit more time to answer by finishing off her coffee. With a little clink, the cup is set back on the saucer and Mei sighs with an air of mournful acceptance. "My path was decided for me. But I'm excited to see where Strixhaven takes everyone! And hopefully we'll have more chances to do this too. It's been so nice to see more of my home plane! I think I've seen as much of it as you and the others have," she giggles.
Mae offered a resigned smile, "Well true, we are only first years, after all. Hopefully by the end we will have some idea." She sipped her spritzer again and shrugged, "Sure, if you want. Like now? Or when we get back?"
Mae was done shortly thereafter, only about three-quarters through everything on her plate, but already feeling bloated and overfull. "Your path was, or is decided? Did I know this was your home plane? How interesting. I suppose it is nice to be able to see it again, in a way." She smiled though and drained the last of her drink. "Goodness, I can't remember when I've eaten this much!"
"Both," Mei answers a bit cryptically, glad when Maeleve continues on. "B-but, oh, later I mean! We probably should be on our way soon, right? Get good seats? And maybe we could take our time getting there and pop into any interesting shops or stalls on the way too! Just need to grab the others if they're finished."
If Mae is ready, the Dreamer will point a finger in the direction of Knap and Mal and Message to ask if they've finished their breakfast (if she got the feeling they're within 120 feet at least). She'll then pay for MeiMae's meals and wait for everyone to reconvene so they can be on their way to the arena.
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One leg folded over another, Knap luxuriously reclines on a cafe chair, sips a coffee and nibbles a pastry and discourses with Malvyn about beasts and monsters, natures and nurture, the infernal and the divine.
“Mal, have you ever worried there is something dark in your nature? You know, a dark side?” He asks forgetting for a moment Mal has frequently had to fight such assumptions made about him.
"What do you want, Mei? I'm starving though so I think I'd prefer the restaurant down the way, but if you don't want that I'm sure I can content myself with the cafe over here. But either way let's go before I pass out from being hungry." She gave a smile though at her floor mate.
Mei eyes are the size of dinner plates as she sees the advertisement. She whispers reverently, "Waffles," then grabs Mae's hand and hurries down the street to the restaurant. "We're getting waffles down the street," she Messages to the satyr and tiefling as they pass.
Mei insists on paying for Maeleve's breakfast as they order and, after much debate with herself and the swallowing of ample guilt, orders a waffle piled high with every topping they have.
Mae gave a little "oop" as she was suddenly dragged off down the street. She giggled a bit as Mei rushed them off for waffles and didn't put up a fuss when she insisted on paying for their food. She ordered a wide variety of things, from pancakes and sausages to fruits and tubers, with a fruity spritzer to wash it all down. She took her time eating though, trying to savor the various flavors and sensations, and grateful they weren't eating dried bread again. "Are waffles important where you're from, Mei?" She asked after they had a chance to dig in a while.
The message is cast twice so that both Malvyn and Knap might receive it. It does just get to them.
As Mei drags Mae along, you can see that this restaurant is relatively busy. It takes a few moments for a hostess, a young half-elf woman, to speak with you. It's then a few more minutes to get seated. But the wait is not really all that long. Soon a waiter comes over, a young satyr man. He seems to take Mae's order in stride but puzzles a bit over Mei's requestion. "Are you sure you want all of them? All of them together?" He appears to write down your order, then stops. "So. That is all eight kinds of fruit? And then there's the thin-sliced ham with egg and hollandaise, the cottage cheese and roasted vegetables, and avocado, tomato, jalapeno ones. You want those too? Plus we have the frosted waffles - chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla flavored. Oh, and the cinnamon frosted waffles are a big favorite. I just... I mean... together?"
He really looks like his head cannot handle having all of that put together.
Rabbit Sebrica | Skarai | Lokilia Vaelphin | Liivi Orav | Vanizi | Britari/Halila Talgeta/Jesa Gumovi | Neital Rhessil | Iromae Quinaea | Kaila Zokeri | Lusia Varusk | Roxana Raincrest
Guardok spins around looking for a clock. "Late? Oh dear, I thought I would make it just on time", he says sheepishly.
He then watches as Conys leads the first group through, preparing to follow. This is only the second time he has been teleported, and he is gets a little buzz of excitement, shifting from foot to foot as he waits. "What happens if you jump just as they are teleporting you? Do you need to be touching the ground for it to work?", he whispers to Zanther.
Before his fellow genasi can answer, the landscape changes, not dramatically as they are still in an urban area, but it is certainly noticeably different.
"Have you been here before Zanther? Have I asked you that already?", he says, his excitement still obvious as he follows along.
Mei wonders what Cadoras would do. No doubt he'd order all the toppings together, but she wasn't quite as adventurous as her green-haired friend, and so asks for two separate waffles, one for savory toppings and the other, a frosted cinnamon, for sweet. She remembers at the last moment to ask him to hold the meat!
She takes a far larger bite than the small human should be able to handle for her size, fork full of waffle, fruit, and whipped cream. She's largely abstained from sweets at the university but seems very much to be making up for it now.
After a bit of hurried chewing, she answers from behind her hand, "O-Only in that I've never been allowed to have them." After a sip of coffee, she uses a clean spoon to shovel a bite of her waffle and toppings onto Mae's plate to try. "My grandmother says our bodies are the temple that supports the altar of our minds. And that sugar will--" she gesticulates to her head and makes a small explosion sound, whipped cream flying from the spoon.
"What about you? Did you have any, um... restrictions? Back home?"
Mae looked at Mei with a bit of surprise as she spoke, first at the nearly absurd order and then at the explanation for her waffle desire. "Oh, how interesting. I think we said something like -what's good for the body is good for the mind is good for the soul-, but I don't recall any specific foods being prohibited. I was never overly fond of sweets though, so perhaps that was a good thing." Mae thought a moment in a slow chew as she wiped off bits of whipped cream from Mei's spoon. "Course I suppose for a long time I was also inundated with treats and I didn't have the stomach for them all so I just didn't care to see or taste them anymore. This food is pretty good though."
"I'll remember not to make you something sweet for your birthday then," she says with a little grin. Mei thinks about how different their upbringings must have been--though perhaps two sides of the same coin--as she takes a bite next of her savory waffle. "What about... other restrictions? Like... um... staying out late or traveling? Or--" color creeps up across her cheeks, "--d-dating?"
Mae put her silverware down, took a sip of her drink and laid her arms across each other on the table. "I suppose it depends on your definition of restriction. My parents were not overly obsessed with keeping me in, not for a long time anyway. Eventually any restriction was largely my own doing, not theirs. I was often out late because that's when taverns and performing venues are open to performances, and I only traveled in a limited fashion for an engagement and returned home promptly." She sat back a bit and darkened some. "My parents were...understanding, I think, when it came to dating. As in, they supported me not doing it for the most part. Again though, that was more my doing than theirs."
"Every day and night growing up my friend...." The purple-.skinned tiefling answers, surprised over how he was not struck with anxiety over being asked about this subject, a testament to how much had happened since he came to Strixhaven and how relatively secure he felt in the company of his friends, yes, he actually considered himself having friends now. "...but less and less of late. These thoughts have haunted me and I have thought about it frequently. My conclusion is that we all have something dark in ourselves, but with most of us the light prevails, for some it is a struggle more than for others I suspect. I can only assume having friends to support oneself can help with that struggle." He continues with a warm smile, finishing his first cup of coffee and ordering a second. "Just say if you think we should join the girls or if you prefer to stay here, I'm fine either way."
Mei's brows pinch together with concern over her friend's darkening expression. Not wishing to make her dwell on sad things, she pivots. "Your feelings on that have... changed, though?" she asks, lips pursing against a smile as she gives Maeleve a knowing look beneath her lashes.
She cuts a quarter of what's left of her savory waffle--now knowing she doesn't care much for sweets--and deposits it on Mae's plate for trying next. It's quite apparent by now that feeding others is one of her love languages. "Green does go beautifully with your coloring" she teases.
Mae watched Mei push more food onto her already full plate but didn't comment on it, but took a small bite as she listened. With a light sigh of resignation she finally spoke, "No, not particularly. Oh don't get me wrong, Larine is sweet in her own way and I do enjoy what time we've been able to spend together but...I don't know yet, Mei. When your memories are full of almost nothing but people that want you and want to use you for all the wrong reasons it gets hard to...trust anyone." A small tear appeared in the corner of her bright blue eyes.
Mei sets her utensils down and reaches across the table to take her friend's hand. Love isn't like it is in her books. She'd learned that the hard way since coming here. But hers was a far gentler lesson compared to what Mae has been through. Beauty is surely a double-edged sword, though, being no great beauty herself, she's yet to feel how sharp.
Her features soften as she holds Mae's gaze. "I think trust is.. like a mirror. When it's broken, you can never look at it the same again. But..." she looks around the restaurant, observing the people around them. Their expressions. Their body language. Their patterns. "Maybe it's better. Because then you have to look more closely at it--at all the little pieces, instead of the big picture. And I think that's where trust lives. In tiny moments, instead of big, sweeping ones."
Her eyes are slowly drawn back to Mae and, suddenly shy, she smiles apologetically and focuses on her food again. "Sorry, th-that's--er... I must sound so hopelessly idealistic. I know trust and love are much more nuanced than that, but.. you deserve to be wanted for the right reasons. For you. And I hope you'll still be open to someone who works to prove it." It's after a moment that she says with a heated grumble and a particularly hard stab of her waffles, "And warts and curses on the others."
Mae listened and then shrugged slightly, patting Mei's hand a bit. "Honestly, Mei, I wasn't particularly that interested to begin with, and people just didn't help that feeling. It why I ended up at Strixhaven to begin with. I suppose one thing I do like about Larine is that she doesn't try that hard I guess. I love performing, Mei, that's what I want to do more than anything. I wasn't able to just do that back home." She got a small smile, "And yes, curses on the others. I'm assuming you weren't allowed to be with others then back home?"
Mei shakes her head and sinks a bit in her seat. "N-No. My studies and training were priority. And, well... at home I'm sort of seen as..." she pushes a bit of fruit around her plate, "cursed. Because of the death Dreams. Most people think I'm a bad omen."
"B-but anyways! Is that what you want to do after Strixhaven? Tour and travel?" She brightens, "Or join a troupe like Guardok's circus? Every time he talks about it, I think of how exciting a life like that would be."
Mae nodded a little and took another slow bite. "Ironic, I think. You were thought to be cursed for dreams, I was thought to be blessed for more tangible reasons, yet both of us found a need to leave. But I don't think you're a bad omen. You can't control what you dream, can you?" Mae poked at some of her remains and then took another sip.
When the conversation shifted she sat back in thought. "I'm not really sure, Mei. I can't go back home anytime soon though, so I suppose traveling will have to do, which is fine. For so long my life was dictated to me I barely ever had time to think about what I might want to do with my life. I suppose I could see myself doing that, traveling on my own from town to town, performing as I will. I rather enjoy the showband though too, so I think if there was a place like that somewhere I would enjoy that as well, but I really don't know. I do know that life on the road can be very hard though too." Mae looked a little lost in thought for a moment. "I'm sorry, what about you? I had a mentor that was a wizard. He helped me get to Strixhaven. What do you want to do?"
"You have lots of time to decide," she encourages, wondering what thoughts the aasimar is lost in. "And I could always do a reading for you too! I-If you'd ever like some extra insight."
Stuffed full of waffles and toppings, the Dreamer sets her utensils and napkin on the plates to indicate she's finished with her meal then reclines back in her chair. She gives herself a bit more time to answer by finishing off her coffee. With a little clink, the cup is set back on the saucer and Mei sighs with an air of mournful acceptance. "My path was decided for me. But I'm excited to see where Strixhaven takes everyone! And hopefully we'll have more chances to do this too. It's been so nice to see more of my home plane! I think I've seen as much of it as you and the others have," she giggles.
Mae offered a resigned smile, "Well true, we are only first years, after all. Hopefully by the end we will have some idea." She sipped her spritzer again and shrugged, "Sure, if you want. Like now? Or when we get back?"
Mae was done shortly thereafter, only about three-quarters through everything on her plate, but already feeling bloated and overfull. "Your path was, or is decided? Did I know this was your home plane? How interesting. I suppose it is nice to be able to see it again, in a way." She smiled though and drained the last of her drink. "Goodness, I can't remember when I've eaten this much!"
"Both," Mei answers a bit cryptically, glad when Maeleve continues on. "B-but, oh, later I mean! We probably should be on our way soon, right? Get good seats? And maybe we could take our time getting there and pop into any interesting shops or stalls on the way too! Just need to grab the others if they're finished."
If Mae is ready, the Dreamer will point a finger in the direction of Knap and Mal and Message to ask if they've finished their breakfast (if she got the feeling they're within 120 feet at least). She'll then pay for MeiMae's meals and wait for everyone to reconvene so they can be on their way to the arena.