etraya | un: theball

Hey. Hope everyone's recovering from that stupid maze okay.

I'll just get right down to my point of inquiry. For a place that claims that we're meant to save the universe, I've noticed a pretty dramatic human-bias around here that strikes me as kind of odd, considering how diverse the universe actually is.

So I'd like to get a show of hands. Who here is from a world where humans are the only sentient species around, and who here is from a world with more than just humans kicking around? What other sorts of species are around? I'd like to know how much of it is selection-bias based on who's running this place and how much of it is them drawing from places that just don't have any non-human populations. I wouldn't mind hearing about what sorts of non-humans you have around either, but that's probably less important, statistically speaking.

Lastly... what do you see when you look at this picture?

[ Inserted is a photograph of a suave looking goblin man in a tuxedo with a pencil-thin moustache. He's holding a champagne flute towards the camera with his arm around -- something. If you've been infected by the curse, you'll see the goblin man's arm is around a black tabaxi woman, but if not, his arm looks as though it's simply hanging in mid-air. ]

[ OOC NOTE: due to the extremely low likelihood we'll ever get kalina in-game, the picture is just for flavour! if you'd like your character to be infected by the shadowcat and thus able to see her image in the photo, it would be due to any circumstance in which any of riz's bodily fluids were absorbed into their own body in some way, i.e. blood or saliva. feel free to handwave a circumstance in which that could happen, even if it's riz's blood lingering on one of the labyrinth's traps that then got into an open cut of theirs, a glass in the labyrinth he drank from that they then used, etc., etc.! Please see this comment for more information! ]

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I mean, my Mom kind of had to figure it out. She's my Mom.

[ And that right there is the sticking point between friends and family, as Riz knows it. His Mom loves him, he knows, and she's endlessly proud and supportive of him, and he hasn't felt a day in which he hasn't been able to rely on that source of uncompromising acceptance. But he knows, too, that his Mom would do this for any kid she wound up with, and that Riz in particular was never an easy child to raise. But he's who she got stuck with, so that was that.

The same can't be said for Fabian. Friendships can be built on unconditional acceptance, sure. But that acceptance can be revoked at any time. It's not like Fabian's just stuck with Riz -- he's made the choice to be with him, and as heartening as that is, it means that the terrifying prospect that he could choose not to be with him looms overhead. He's confident in himself while he's adventuring. He's useful. He figures out the clues. He hides, and disarms traps, and conjures up strategies and gameplans. He's confident when there's a mission at hand.

What they're doing here, seeing each other more than just at school and on missions, actually living together? That's different. It's not as though the Bad Kids aren't already well aware of his foibles, but now Fabian gets to see them laid bare, when all of these ramblings probably won't amount to anything useful in the long-run. It's a little scary.

But Fabian's right here, cracking a joke and doing his damnedest to get Riz to stick around (even though having an office wouldn't mean moving out; come on, Fabian!), so maybe he'll do the scary thing anyway. ]

But -- yeah. If you wanna make it work, we can make it work. [ He looks up at Fabian, heavy brows wrinkled in -- something. Touched and confused in equal measures, maybe. ]

...thanks, man.

[ Fabian hits Riz's shoulder.

Not hard, thankfully, but that's definitely a fist, knuckles out and everything! Sorry, the friendly jock gestures just keep happening.. ]

Well, she might be your mother, but I'm your best friend.

[ He says it so naturally.

As if to Fabian.. there isn't much of a difference. Part of that might be his own complicated relationship with his parents and the conditionality of some things when it comes to them. Part of that might just be that Fabian really does care so genuinely about all his friends. But he smiles in that way Fabian always does when there's no extra meaning to his words at all. When they're just what they plainly seem to be. ]

And I hope you're not telling me that I ought to look for a new best friend just over some clue boards.

[ Granted, it is bigger than the clue boards.

But considering Fabian hates having his issues pointed out, he can't imagine it's all that much more fun for Riz. So even though they both know the truth, and even though they both know that the other also knows that truth - he's fine with keeping it this lighthearted out loud, even between them.

Especially as Fabian is reassuring him that nothing like this could ever break their best friend bond. You worked for that, Riz! You hustled for years!! You gave up important information to an enemy for this!! ]

[ Fabian probably should get a new best friend for a whole host of reasons, Riz is aware, but it's not like he's going to tell the guy that after he'd spent the past year and a half more or less goading, tricking, cajoling, and otherwise conning him into taking the role (the role that Riz himself is still a little surprised that Fabian's taken to, even months in the future, and one he's not particularly inclined to jeopardize), so he just ducks his head and smiles instead, even ignoring the way Fabian's knuckles bounce off his shoulder.

(It's a little reassuring to know the future. That things get fucked up, and school is probably hard, and apparently they have to chase after the Night Yorb in between now and surviving their Junior Year, but no friendships have been irrevocably fucked up. That's a win. Sometimes Riz still can't quite believe how much he lucked out in Freshman Year.) ]

You know that's not what I'm saying, [ he protests. ] No takebacksies.

[ Which isn't how this sort of thing is supposed to work, but Fabian can pry their friendship necklaces out of his cold, dead hands. And then he'd probably haunt the shit out of him, or something. It's feels stupid, immature, weird to still care about shit that happened in fucking middle school (a time he's certain that his parents never actually look back on themselves as the well-adjusted adults that Riz is hoping to emulate), but sometimes he still doesn't know what to do when Fabian turns off the rich-kid act in favour of easy acceptance, thoughtless kindness. ]

...c'mon. Let's go get something to eat, and then I'll take the rest of this down. Deal?

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