un: theball | text

[stresstokens]

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! ]

Comments

[stresstokens]

I've gotten the opposite! Nobody's asked me anything, so I figured everyone just knew what I was until everyone spilled that they had no idea. Maybe they're more worried about looking impolite because it's more obvious with me???

I'm starting to learn that. Which I hate, for the record. I'd rather our species just not exist at all than be some human's fantasy. There's gotta be some planar bleed or something happening there.

[furiousfists]

I guess I'm close enough to human-passing that I fall in people's uncanny valley? Either way, it's pretty annoying.

Planar bleed is one theory. A fairly plausible one, really. With the existence of extraplanar beings like Echo, it makes sense that certain things from one world would cross over into the minds of other worlds. Hells, I wouldn't be surprised if some weirdo from Highcourt wrote a fantasy novel about a world with only humans in it.

[ Turnabout is fair play.

But, on to more important matters: ] Has anyone been able to see Kalina so far?

[stresstokens]

It's the only thing I can think of that could explain all that. I almost want to hear what they think they know about us, but I have a funny feeling that I won't like the answer much.

Just the one so far. And she definitely shouldn't be able to. She's not even from our plane.

[ He's not saying it out loud here, but he knows Adaine can read between the lines: I fucked up. ]

(oh yeah and this isn't private bc privacy filters don't exist)

[furiousfists]

Yeah, might be best not to poke at that hornet's nest.

[ Oh, Adaine can read between the lines. But she's a bit taken aback. Riz would normally be much more careful than that. ]

What happened? Something in the labyrinth? Did you get hurt?

[ She can't imagine it would be any other sort of bodily fluid that would have been exchanged. Not with Riz. ]

gotcha!!

[stresstokens]

Yeah, I did. A few times. I was careful to only bandage myself up, but I didn't do my due diligence in cleaning all of it off of the maze itself.

[ It was a stupid mistake. He'd been so focused on getting to the end of the maze and, frankly, getting through the whole thing alive that he hadn't even considered it. ]

I hope it was just the one woman. I'll do better next time.

[furiousfists]

[ As dangerous it is that Kalina might have entered the Etraya population, Adaine can't help but feel bad when she reads Riz's response. ]

It's alright. As long as she knows she needs to be careful... We should be able to keep things contained.

[stresstokens]

She has no reason to be here. As long as we're here, we're not threatening her. When she said that if we backed off, she would too, I believed her.

So that's just what we'll have to roll with for now.

[furiousfists]

Alright. If you think we can take her word for it, then I'll take yours.

And if we're wrong...? I'll help however I can. I've heard we can ask Aurora for things from home. Maybe we can ask for the ingredients necessary for a duskmoss tincture.

[stresstokens]

So we came up with a cure?

[ That's a relief. He figured they'd just cured themselves by killing her. ]

I think we might be able to manage that, if you know how to mix it together. She's already given me back my briefcase. A few ingredients shouldn't be that big a deal.

[furiousfists]

A sort of vaccine, yeah. It was mostly Kristen who figured it out. I think I remember enough to be able to recreate it, if needs must.

I've been considering asking Aurora for material components. If these missions are going to require me to cast higher level magic, then I'm going to need to stay stocked. And they don't exactly carry diamonds and phoenix feathers at Quik Trip.