Ocean Breeze [Social]

Iris sat on one of the docks on this fine day. A mark on the back of her neck, the insignia of the silver wolf guild, covering up that barcode that was hidden under the ostentatious guild mark. The blind girl gazed blankly out to sea, with not much of a care in the world, this was such a far ways away from Enca, and the sights were all the same to her, you know, because of the blindness? Yeah, there wasn't much a blind girl could do for tourism, was there? Well, she enjoyed the sounds, the smells, the sensations her synesthesia gave her. She could tell when boats were coming to port to dock, and she could tell when people were moving about behind her.

Iris wanted to experience more and more of Fiore, it was such a lovely country to the Encan girl on the run. But, why was a blind girl on her own anyways? Someone might want to take advantage of that? She had run in with several people on her travels over to the country already, but, she remained optimistic that not every single person was a vile jerk.

And so, the newest pup to the Silver Wolf guild sat on the dock, swinging her legs and humming a song so she could constantly have some sort of sensory synapse over her body from the synesthesia she 'suffered from' utilizing it like a muddied echo location. It wasn't perfect, but, it got the job done.

She didn't know what she wanted to do today, or what would happen, though, being harassed by hooligans about trying to stare off in to nothing while all she saw was nothing wasn't on the list. It was normally not a problem to her, but, the words still hurt, it wasn't her fault she was blind, stupid curse....

WC: 314

For reasons that were clear enough to him, Solmar always hated the open waters of the seas and oceans of Earthland. Being rather indiscriminate about that, those that were aware of the problems he had faced with them such as a certain rune knight would probably not blame him for it. And even though those issues had been resolved for the most part, he could not shake the feeling that he did not belong there where deep waters were most prominent. Having grown up in the woodland regions of Sakuramori and the river areas surrounding the River village, his place of birth, he never needed to deal with being in open waters as the rivers and woodlands provided plenty for him and his family at the time. Now that he was his own man, to some degree at least, the only time when he would even consider going near large bodies of salt water was when it had something to do with a potential job or a lead regarding one such job.

Ever since he had come back from a world where nature ruled supreme and he himself had managed to find his true calling, it had become easier for him to find and recognize early signs of corruption. It was as if his senses, which were already well beyond that of the ordinary person due to his slayer's prowess, were more attuned to sniffing out such things. But that much was to be expected as he had spent the past three months fighting against corruption in its most raw form, eradicating it with fire at every turn. Only being back now because that threat had been contained and because he had a lot of things to do in Earthland, he had returned to do just that, which was when he learned that he could now find corruption and the corrupted a lot more easily. Though a good thing in essence, the fact that there was more of it than he had initially imagined made it into a rather hard pill to swallow. But just because it was a lot to take in did not mean that it would stop him from pursuing it wherever it would show its ugly head.

And it was for that reason that he had gone to Hargeon, a place he could not remember having visited before in the past, making this his first ever visit. From what he could tell though, it was a rather rowdy place when compared to other cities he had visited such as Era or Hosenka, and that wasn't something he generally enjoyed. Being more for the peace and quiet of nature, he could tell that most of the people around here were minding their own business while loudly conversing with one another. Though he had come here to speak with a local fisherman who supposedly had problems that seemed to overlap with calamities caused by the vassals of corruption passing through or making their home in an area. Namely that regular fish were no longer edible, became increasingly more violent and grew to twice or sometimes three times their regular size, he had decided to take a look around the city first. Believing that it was never a bad thing to get the lay of the land before getting down to business, he let his eyes scan the streets.

Noticing dining places, smiths, tailors and all manner of merchants, it was clear that this was a place that thrived and had a lot of jewels passing through it. Figuring that he might just try one of the diners or restaurants once he was done with the business side of his visit, it was at that point that his gaze was drawn towards the waterside when he heard a feminine humming. As it was often the case that his ears picked up on things before his other senses did, his eyes then fell on a girl with purple hair that seemed no older than he was. As these bright and less than ordinary hair colors often stood out from a crowd, and thus drew ones attention towards it, it made him wonder if she was one of the locals. As he was supposed to meet the fisherman by these same docks at some point, he imagined that his appearance, while nothing special, would likely make him seem like the person the man was supposed to look for. What with his thick fur coat and shaggy black hair, his physique made him stand out from the citizens of Hargeon.

Wandering towards the docks, Solmar wondered if this girl was a mage such as himself as he could certainly sense some magical power from her. Though this did not mean much as not everyone with magic power was a mage, her being near the docks meant that she might know more about the situation he had come here to investigate. So, as he approached her, the most sensible thing to do was just to ask and see what might come out of it.

"Hey, are you familiar with these docks and the local wildlife?"


(853)

She turned toward the voice that had approached her. Each foot step on the dock was felt by her. Her synesthesia picking up on her soon to be conversation partner. The person was broad, muscled. The way they walked, it was like the crackling of a fresh sheen ganache that was broken by the simplest of weight over the sodden wood. The slightest give that gave way to microscopic cracks int he wood. SHe would turn toward the person as she was spoken to. His voice subtle, simple, gentle, like a fresh wash of chilled coffee, the perfect temperature to drink in one go.

"Nope!" SHe would plainly state in her Encan accent before turning back toward the sea, looking out at it without looking at it. "I came to the country for something else. And, I haven't seen a single thing here before. I haven't seen anything before!" She would say cheerfully before turning around, twisting at the waist, two hands against the dock while kipping up to her feet, standing tall as she pointed at her eyes with her index and pinky finger. Leaning in close to illustrate it. A smile on her face as she indicated that she was blind. "I don't remember the last time I saw anything, or if it was all in my head! See? heh." She had to chuckle at that little pun there.

Stepping back, folding her hands behind her back, she would sway back and forth, just barely on the edge of the dock, a precarious perch that threatened to be a downfall in to the ocean. "I'm Iris. Iris DuPage. It's nice to meet you. I don't suppose you know how to get back to the phoenix mountains do you? I tend to get lost without a guide."

WC: 316
TWC: 630

“Oh.. I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

Not being overly certain as to how to respond in a situation such as this, he at least knew better than to say something along the lines of “I see” as that would not make things any better in his opinion. Judging by the way she reacted, her visual… impairment did not seem to get her down, though he knew better than to just judge a book by its, or in this case, her cover. Some of the people who had the most to hide from the world wore the bravest of faces, so there was really no telling which of the two was true in this point. Not that it mattered though. What mattered right now was that she was not one of the locals and did not know anything about the people living here or the animals around the place. As such, asking her more about whether or not the local fish were really as messed up as his contact had made them would not really benefit him much and would likely just confuse her, so he dropped it for now.

“I am Solmar, and I know the Phoenix mountains quite well. They’re still a good distance away from here, so it’s not something you can just walk towards in an afternoon.”

Making that much as clear as crystal, he did not really say anything about being a guide for anything as he did not have the time to sign himself up for such things right now. There was something he needed to get done here in Hargeon before he could do anything along the lines of guides another human from one location to the other, something that seemed bigger than just one person. Continuing to look around while he conversed with the girl, he tried to locate the fisherman he was supposed to be meeting here. His contact had been quite clear about it, as well as making the meeting spot as simple as possible while being in a public place. Making such deals as some people seemed afraid of Solmar, or rather, afraid of being alone in an enclosed space with him while relaying information to him, such things were put into place so the person he was to speak to would feel more at easy. Figuring that his magic power could be quite imposing, it was to be expected of such cowardly little humans.

“However, if you wouldn’t mind sticking around until I’m done here, I won’t mind guiding you to the Phoenix mountains. Big place like that tends to have plenty of work anyway.”

Giving the girl the choice to accompany him in exchange for him accompanying her to the Phoenix mountains, which would be quite the hike no matter how one looked at it, he hoped that the fisherman would be getting to the meeting point soon. Already being several minutes late, there were few things Solmar hated more than wasting time when doing a job that was important to him. And seeing as how any kind of unnatural corruption being inflicted upon nature was akin to spitting him in the face, one could go as far as to say that this particular job was quite important to him. Even as he watched for the fisherman, he also kept an eye on his surroundings, finding that it was not the wisest place for the girl to be when she could not see. One slip and she could end up in the water, which, if he was to believe his contact, was not exactly the place one would want to be in right now. If the fish really did grow as big as he had been told and got more violent and hungry, attacking people seemed like the kind of thing that would not really faze them. Regardless, as he waited for a response, he kept a watchful gaze.


(653 // 1506)

"Oh that's fine! People seem to only approach me from behind, like someone writes them that way in a grand scheme of the things kind of way." She gestured with her hands through the air, motioning around in different ways as if she was trying to paint a picture for him to look at. "If people approach me from the front though, I would suspect that they would become too drawn by my eyes and treat me differently. So, thank you for talking to me like a person at least." The girl said while turning her gaze back out to the sea, only to start to stand up, turning and walking toward the person that spoke to her.

"Your voice. It feels like marbled grating together, a rumbling of many glass rocks that are clicking and clacking, like a refined gravel road." She said the weirdest things, but, she had Synesthesia, she described things how they felt to her, because that was the sensation of touch she got from his voice hitting her ears. Like a full body forced ASMR experience, Iris was always in this kind of a state.

Of course, while the Solmar wanted to look around for his contact, Iris would nod to what he was saying, "That would be most agreeable to my condition! Loathe as I am to admit, I am incapable of following directions without a guide, as, I am sure you can tell, that I cannot decipher a map one way or the other."

She may be blind, she may be a little weird, but, she seemed strong, how else could she be here on her own? Her SYnesthesia helped with that, in its own way. A big wave came crashing up behind her, threatening to throw her down to the wooden dock, or worse, the curb of the cobble stone walkway at the end of it!

She would write with her hand in the air the word SPONGE. Each letter turned a different color, each letter got a bunch of holes in it as they become three dimensional, and as the water came crashing down, it was absorbed, only to have those spongy letters smack wetly on the dock before she would fold her arms. "I could hear that coming. It was like a wall of tearing paper."

WC: 402
TWC: 1032

To him, being treated differently had never been that strange as it was exactly what happened to him most of the time. To most people, he behaved differently, he looked differently and went about his dealings differently. Therefore, he was different. The way he saw it though, he had managed to turn into a fairly decent human being when considered how he wasn’t even entirely human, as well as how he had more or less been fending for himself in the wilderness since his seventh year. Not dwelling on it for too long, he was told something that he had never heard before, and had truthfully never imagined he would ever hear in his life. Apparently, his voice sounded like “marbles grating together, a rumbling of many glass rocks that are clicking and clacking, like a refined gravel road”. Not really sure as to what this meant, he figured that it was probably a compliment, though he really couldn’t be sure about it as he had no idea what any of that even sounded like. Uncertain as to how he should respond to it, he figured he’d just respond to the things he could.

“Uhm.. thanks I guess. I personally don’t use maps, I just let nature guide me as best as it can.”

Not really sure how to explain that kind of stuff as most people looked at him funny when he claimed that he could speak to plants, trees and animals, he figured he would keep that much to himself. But that was not all though, as he could also track using all kinds of other measures such as telling the direction he was headed in by seeing where the moss was growing on a tree, where the sun was, which constellations were where, etcetera. But as he thought about taking the girl along with him to do his job here in Hargeon, part of him wondered whether or not taking a blind girl with him into a potentially dangerous situation was really the best thing to do. A smart person would probably say that it wasn’t right away, though Solmar did not really want to see things in such black and white terms. For all he knew, the girl might have been an accomplished mage in her own right, meaning she could take care of herself well enough. She was here on her own after all, so she must have been able to get around one way or another or she would probably not have been allowed to do so to begin with.

When his ears warned him to a large crashing wave coming in that might knock an unknowing person flat on their ass, he wanted to act, though it seemed he did not need to. As per usual, his magical abilities activated themselves as soon as the girl used her spell, allowing him to get a fairly accurate reading on how strong her magic was in his head, while also obviously being able to see what it did with his own eyes. From just looking at it, it seemed to be some kind of magic that physically created a spoken word and attached attributes to it that came naturally to it. In this case, the word “Sponge” was used to absorb the incoming wave of water before falling to the ground once they had soaked up all of the moisture into themselves. Having never seen anything of this magical type before, it was quite an interesting sight to behold, and obviously he was quite interested because of it. To him, few things were as interesting as witnessing new magics and seeing what it was capable of with his own two eyes, as well as his magical sensory abilities. He needed to know more about it, that much stood like a rock above water.

“Woow, what do you call that magic?”


(646 // 2152)

Iris would, upon being asked about her magic, turn to describe it to the man before her. "It's called solid script. As a form of letter magic, it holds the power of words. It takes the idea of the pen is mightier than the sword, and makes it a reality out of what you write within reason. Solid script can't just write DIE and someone will die if it hits them. That's a different kind of writing magic. They all have their own unique intricacies to them that makes them all useful when combined. Often, writing magic users are referred to as weaker for the lack of creativity that they have and the limitations of their power."

"That said, I make it work with having learned how letters look. It actually took me a long while to learn how to use it write. I can read braille. It's raised dots. And, it's hard translated from letters people read normally. I had to be taught how each dot corresponds to each letter I can't see. And then, I learned how to write them with my hands and feet sometimes if I need to kick someone with a spell, that's--a story for another time!" SHe would say before walking toward the guy,continuing on thereafter.

"The main thing though, is that I can translate writing in books from braille to normal letters now, and, I'm hoping to use my magic to try and find a cure for my eyes." If it was blindness why didn't she just see a healer? Well, a closer look at her eyes would reveal the glyphs in them, a curse mark, something that couldn't be cured through conventional means. She was cursed to be this way it seemed!

"So, mister, what's your name and what's your story? You know a lot about me already!"

WC: 329
TWC: 1361

Listening with great intent, he heard out everything the girl had to say about this strange magic that was called “solid script”. Seemingly being one kind of script, which implied that there were different forms of script, they did more or less what he had imagined they would by taking on the characteristics matching the word itself. When she explained that it could not do things like making a person die by writing the word “Die” or “Death”, he figured that that was an entirely different kind of magic that was most likely prohibited by this so called “Magic Council”. Hearing out most of what she had to say before he would be posing any questions that he might have at this point, because doing so was what humans and most other sentient beings considered good manners, he had some of the things he wanted to know answered before he needed to actually ask the question. In that sense, he figured they had it by the right end that waiting for one to finish speaking was both a sign of good manners, but mostly saved people the time and effort of having to ask questions that were already being handled.

“So creativity is linked to the use of this magic, and people who are more creative with their use are considered to be stronger. I guess that makes sense, since you can only do so much if you possess a limited vocabulary. How very interesting. So uhm, when you called this “Solid Script”, does this mean there are more types of “Script” magic out there that you are aware of?”

When it came to magic, there was no faking his interest in it as it was one of the few things that actually interested him aside from food, killing threats to nature and actually learning new forms of magic himself. To him, it seemed like she had been through quite the struggle to learn this kind of magic, especially when she couldn’t actually see things the way he did. Still, she could somehow “see”, because by hearing alone, she probably couldn’t have known where to hit her sponge spell as well as she did. At least that was what he believed, though it was said by some that those who lacked a sense had their others improved upon. Whether that was true or just hearsay however, he did not know. Only understanding what braille was due to the way in which she explained it, it seemed to Solmar that people were quite inventive when dealing with people who were different. If only they had found a way to deal with him when he needed it. But that was a thing of the past now.

“My name is Solmar, and as to who I am and what I do.. that’s a cesspit you don’t want to wade into. That said, my magic is getting stronger, a lot stronger, so if you give it a month or so, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to heal your eyes for you.”

After making it clear that his life was quite a bumpy road that most people might not understand the gravity of, especially the more recent bits and pieces of it, he continued on to make a half-promise as to being able to heal the girls eyes, just like he had made it clear that he would heal Gangting’s demonic wounds as well. His magic was growing stronger by the day, and as it became gradually more diverse, he had been venturing into the field of healing as well. Capable of using and bending natural magics and energies to heal his own wounds, he was gradually reaching the point where he could bring out this healing for the sake of others. And seeing as how he could grow back severed limbs and heal his internal organs by infusing them with large quantities of well-directed ethernano particles and convert them into healthy cells, being able to do that for others meant that healing wounds, no matter how dire, were soon to be well within what he would be capable of doing. That said, there was no telling if he would be able to do it in a months time, that much was merely an estimate. Only time would tell if he was right about that much.


(723 // 2875)

Iris nodded to SOlmar's question, "Yes, Solid Script is one type of writing or letter magic. There are ones that utilize characters of other languages, there are ones that utilize runes, there are ones that involve writing rules on areas. For example, mine is SOlid Script, the more common of writing magics. When it comes to Oriental Script, or Runic Script, people have a harder time understanding what the spell is as they likely don't have the joy of understanding the language, but, with Oriental script for example, one is restricted to actions. Solid Script is far more generalist in being able to make fire, or make a carriage, while Oriental script can make slashes, barriers, or short lived things." She would state before going on further.

"There is the extremely rare Jutsu Shiki magic, which sets up unbreakable barriers of magic, well, they can be broken but they will cause a severe amount of damage to the person that breaks the barrier. And they set up rules, such as you cannot directly attack someone, lest the barrier lash out at you with an unavoidable attack." SHe would list off the idiosyncrasies of it on her fingers before continuing on.

"So, when it comes to letter magic, it depends on the type of writing you can understand and what comes to you." SHe would smile while talking about it. People wrote off letter magic as weak, but, there were types of letter magic that were much much stronger, and if you could combine multiple types, you could be a force to be reckoned with.

When SOlmar introduced himself and commented on her eyes, she seemed to turn away a little, looking away, her gaze clearly averted from his own. She didn't take too kindly to him pointing it out, and pointing out the curse, it seemed a bit more personal to her, that she needed to do it herself, maybe as part of a condition of the curse.

"W-Well, moving on, could we go get something to eat? I am a little hungry at the moment." SHe said, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

With how quickly his own magic grew, a rate one might call exponential, he was quite positive about how he would soon be able to heal all kinds of wounds on all manner of living creatures. It was part of him to want to protect and take care of nature, nurturing those who he deemed deserving of it. When the girl seemed to want nothing of it, it made him wonder if maybe this was something she went through by choice, which in turn seemed quite odd to him. That said, humans were weird by nature, that much was something he could tell just from judging the people he had met up until now. If that was how she wanted it, that was how she would get it as he would just refrain from bringing it up again. After all, just because he could do something did not give him the right to force it upon others as he saw fit. That was not the kind of person he was, nor was it the kind of thing he would ever push himself into doing to another person or animal even if he were.

“So what you’re telling me is that, if you understand the word you’re … Writing, I guess, you’ll be able to use the magic in order to formulate the word in the form of a spell?”

Bringing up the other subject, which he personally felt to be far more interesting than trying to figure out why someone would refuse his help, he ventured into the magical aspects of Script. Trying to wrap his head around it, it made him want to see more of it and hear more of it so he would be able to perhaps replicate it for himself. There was, after all, no such thing as having too many utility spells. Up until a certain point in his life, all his own magics had been capable of had been smashing things with large amounts of fire and breaking things apart through sheer force. Thankfully, he had evolved past being able to do just that, and now the sky was the limit. Since this girl seemed to possess the more general version of script magic, he listened as she spoke of other forms such as oriental and runic script, which both seemed interesting to him in their own rights. The more he heard about it, the more interesting the topic became to him to the point where just hearing about it was barely enough.

“Do you have any utility spells in your magical arsenal that you feel are useful to you? And if so, do you think you could show me what they’re about?”

As things were, Solmar really wanted to see more of this magic as it made him quite giddy to unravel something new that he hadn’t seen before up until today. If he were to see it in action, he would probably be able to cast it himself, if he focused on it at least. But it would have to wait for a bit as the girl brought up that she was apparently hungry. With food being his second favorite thing after the concept of magic, it wasn’t that hard for him to shift his attention from it for a bit. Looking around to see if his contact had arrived yet, he started to worry a bit when it still seemed like he wasn’t there. If something had happened to the man, he would need to figure out what it was, and figure out whether it was related to the case they were working on or not. Having nowhere to work up from at this point, he felt it wise to keep a cool head and go about his business normally for a few more minutes before he would actually start seeing this as a missing person’s case and would need to go find him. When he noticed a food stall not far from them, he pointed over to it before realizing she wouldn’t see it anyway, and feeling a bit dumb in the process.

“We could, as long as it doesn’t take too long. I’m expecting someone to meet me here, and have been for a while. So if we could get something from one of the food stalls, I’ll be able to keep an eye on the docks while we do.”

Allowing him to multitask, he was not against getting something to eat as all of the constant traveling often left him quite famished. Hoping they would have something he would enjoy, he just knew that it would most likely be some kind of seafood, given their placement at the docks. Though far from his favorite thing to eat, he imagined that he would be able to adjust for the time being.


(803 // 3678)

Iris would gladly clap her hands together in response to the man asking him about her magic further. "That's the joy about Solid Script! It's considering nothing but a utility magic. But, if you really know how to work it, you can cover a wide array of things! I write fire, I can attack with a stream of flames! WHOOSH! Or I can light a campfire like, crackle crackle, and, if I wanted, I could just use each letter, if I was strong enough, to hit four different things. Like whoosh, zoom, pew pew!" She got a little overzealous when talking about her magic, and while she was doing this, she was bouncing around, not looking at anything in particular.

With Solmar offering that they could get something to eat, she would gladly lead the way. Blind leading the blind, in a way. Of course, she'd stop and let him lead her if he knew of a place. Wherever they went, she'd take out some of her money, different amounts of money all folded in different fashions, such as a ten dollar bill being folded in half short ways, or a twenty dollar bill being folded twice in to fourths. She at least came prepared to pay for herself, rather than take a hand out!