Waltzing about

Dusk, a time when twilight fell and the sky turned to a light, dusky purple filled with small silvery stars. It was one of Thagirion’s favorite times of day, accompanied with the night, while his most hated time was around midday when the sun was at its brightest. As a being born in a time of infinite darkness, the light had been the one constant that blemished his existence. For untold amounts of years, his kind had fought against the coming of the light and the formation of their design, something they had clearly failed at as he now found himself walking on one such sphere. Had it not been for the trickery of the beings that had sealed him away, he would never have managed to be here in this day and age, existing after so many millennia of slumbering in the very same cage to which he had been sentenced by them.

When he mentioned “them”, he meant of course the light-forged, single minded entities born from the light that had done war with his kind in an attempt at occupying and filling the dark void they called their home. Among these light-forged, the worst of the worst were known as the Sephirah, high and mighty generals that sentenced thousands of their own kind just to spring a trap that sealed away Thagirion and his brethren inside of a massive tree on a far-away planet. While barren at first, the material prison the Sephirah called a “prison tree” continued to grow across the planet as it fed on the abyssals that had been trapped within, stripping them of their powers and their sanity as time progressed. When the time came when Thagirion felt his own power started to get zapped away, he knew what needed to be done.

As soon as the infighting among his kind began, he sought out the one that was as strong, or maybe even stronger than he was, and struck him dead in an act meant to assert dominance. To take things ever further, he began cannibalizing the remains, feeling that his powers were gradually returning and rising beyond what he had in him before. Starting a period where fighting to the death and cannibalizing became the new norm within the realm of the prison tree, the only way to survive was to partake in it as the tree would otherwise drain you until death followed. Continuing to murder and kill his way through the ones that were at one point in time his own people, he now considered them as nothing more than a threat. More importantly, he considered them a source of food and a means to uphold his strength while incarcerated.

When there was no one left to kill or even to feed on, Thagirion went into a state of hibernation, fueling the tree with his now nearly endless pool of magical power and life force. As thousands and even millions of years passed, he awoke on the other side of the tree for some reason that was at that point still beyond him. Stuck inside of a material body instead of the mighty ethereal body he possessed, he could tell that he only had a fraction of his former powers left, likely due to the tree draining him for millennia. Speaking to some of the denizens of that place, which seemed to also possess physical forms that greatly differed from his own, he was told that their mighty overlord in the stone had tricked a powerful magus into giving up his life for the sake of the world he found himself on.

Calling the place the Greenscape, Thagirion became quite interested in what went on and chose to go look for this lord of theirs. After a long time of searching, he encountered a magical source of power so great that it just had to be the thing he was looking for. In an attempt at keeping him away, Thagirion callously dispatched several guards by releasing the black that made up the very core of his being while questioning and at the same time threatening the stone that seemed to contain whatever it was that controlled this place. As it turned out, Thagirion and his fellow abyssals had not been the only ones condemned to a life imprisoned upon the planet. When the light had won the war and the abyssals had been sealed, thousands of years of creation had followed.

Learning that, in his absence, the primordial void had been filled up with an entire “universe” of material spheres called “planets”, there came a point where the light itself no longer needed to be present within this particular dimension and decided that it was time to move on. When it did, it realized that the very creatures it had created to combat the darkness were no longer needed and could most likely not keep their warring nature under control once their governing force left. So in a final act, the light destroyed all of the light-forged and the Sephirah alike, leaving only one and encasing him within impenetrable rock. Planting this rock at the core of the planet, it would allow the Qliphah prison to keep functioning while he himself could look after the planet forever from a stationary position. When Thagirion mocked it for being a fool for blindly invading and killing his kind, the stone entity retorted.

Claiming that they were both sealed away on this planet, it had concocted a plan that could potentially set it free. His very purpose here had been to make sure that those that inhabited the primordial darkness would never be able to get out, so by doing the exact opposite, the last of the Sephirah believed that it would set him free too. Unfortunately, instead of releasing an entire race of darkness dwellers, only a single one was released, locked inside of the reconfigured body of the very being that had been tricked into setting the Qliphah free. In other words, Thagirion was still stuck, but was no longer locked up. Accepting that his kind had perished a long time ago and that the primordial void he came from had likely been eradicated the moment they lost the war, he was strangely okay with being condemned at living out his days in a somewhat mortal shell.

Letting him know that the one responsible for him being free from the tree prison was known as Kether, Thagirion recognized him as the mastermind behind the plot that sealed away his people and took away his home and freedom. While he could likely break the stone and kill the Sephirah inside with a bit of luck, Thagirion instead let Kether know the name of the one he had set free upon the world. Spitting on the stone, he flipped it off and left the stone behind where it stood as he looked for a way out. Strangely enough, he seemed to have retained a lot of things that this body knew, ranging from things such as muscle memory to actual memories. One such memory being how to get out of this place and make his way towards a place inhabited by the mortals called “humans”, he figured that it was likely going to be a better environment for him as he would at least look like everyone else there.

Upon finally making it out of the other world, the first thing he did was orient himself, which was a lot harder than it seemed. Not being used to being a four dimensional being, just having to deal with things such as gravity and linear motion was quite a struggle for him. That, and making sure these beings would not come to fear and turn on him was a whole ordeal with which he had been struggling for months. Doing so by sticking to the outskirts and small towns for a long time, he eventually ventured into the city in order to take over the mannerisms and manners of speech from these people as a means of blending in. While things went wrong at times and those believing themselves to be responsible for getting rid of him, Thagirion had to get rid of various bodies in his pursuit of appearing more … human.

Wandering through the city, concealed under a dark coat with a furry white collar, Thagirion had just made his way out of one of the local diners. While most humans were inherently boring, if there was one thing they did right, it was their knowledge of preparing delicious and unique dishes. In the past months he spent blending in, he learned of all of the different regions of the world and that they all had different rulers watching over many different cities and towns. While that by itself was not that interesting, the fact that all of these different regions and sub-regions seemed to have their own culinary expertise was. With each using different kinds of ingredients and means of preparation, he had made it into somewhat of a personal quest to eat everything this world had to offer at least once. Due to his incredibly longevity, him dying of old age was likely several hundreds of years away, so he had the time to undertake such a quest.

With an entire stuffed turkey and several pitchers of sugary mead filling up his belly, the owner of the diner had been quite surprised to see that Thagirion walked out as if nothing was wrong. To a being such as himself, the effects alcohol have on the body meant nothing. Tossing a small satchel with jewels towards the barkeep to pay for the food and the drinks, he seemed to have paid quite a large sum more than he owed. Again, such mortal inventions meant little to him, though he did understand the need to keep plenty of currency around if one wanted to get things done in this world. While intimidation and mayhem seemed to get the message across just fine, having to hide more bodies was not worth the hassle and being bothered by people who deemed themselves fit to enforce the law were knuckleheaded buffoons to say the least.

If nothing else, the city of Crocus seemed to be in possession of quite the tall amount of buffoonery and plenty of idiots that believed to be authorities on the intricate workings of the world and on magic. While he himself was still an adept at figuring out how the material world and many of the things residing within it truly functioned, by now, he understood enough about human beings to know when someone was bluffing his ass off. And bluffing was something he was seeing quite a bit of around here, along with needless posturing and the previously mentioned idiocy. With his dark hair, indigo-colored eyes and his wardrobe which was a mixture of flamboyance and stature, there were still a fair amount of people referring to him as Solmar. While he was indeed the exact replica of the former Wizard Saint Solmar Starshade, he upheld the lie that he was in fact his twin brother.

While a cheap lie if nothing else, the fact that very few people truly knew Solmar due to his nomadic nature meant that there were only a handful of people on the very planet itself that truly knew what he was like. For this reason, keeping the lie going and making sure others bought it was not exactly all that hard on him. Continuing to wander about without really having a place to go to, he just continued to ponder on things while keeping an eye on his surroundings and figuring out what it was that he truly wanted to be doing. At this point in time, he was up for just about anything to keep the impending boredom at bay for just a little bit longer.



2010

It was Seika's first time in the capitol, and she was delighted! Everywhere around there were dozens of people to watch avidly; she had been sitting at a cafe for over two hours now, drinking at least a gallon of hot chocolate in order to continue occupying the table. Across the street, there were several stores and other establishments, such as eateries. Through their windows she could see all sorts of people shopping, dining, and just enjoying themselves- or being unhappy. Seika drank in the sight of all of it, hyper aware of the fact that someone else was probably watching her to the same extent and she just didn't know it. All of a sudden, a pair of paws pressed themselves against her thigh, and Seika drew in a sharp breath before she looked down with a bright smile on her face. "Aphi! Did you get your food?" The spirit, currently in the shape of an inconspicuous brown and white house cat, raised an eyebrow condescendingly. "Aphi, did you get your food?" She mocked Seika, and the mage pouted back. "Yes, Seika. Elk meat," she conceded after a pause before hopping up onto the cafe table. From inside the cafe itself, the duo heard one of the wait staff call out, "I'm sorry, Miss, but cats are not allowed on the furniture," but the comment was solidly ignored by both of them.

Seika's interest was piqued as a man in a dark coat stepped out of the diner across the street and to the right. While the white fur trim around the neck hole concealed a bit of his face, his visage was still visible- and it was an interesting one. His expression, while dignified (probably largely thanks to his clean, sharp facial structure) was somewhat... weary? No, that wasn't exactly the right word; either way, Seika was intrigued. "Aphi, wanna?" She nudged the feline, and said cat yawned. "Go ahead," she grudgingly allowed, and when Seika hopped up, her drinks already paid for, Aphelia followed a few steps behind. As they trailed the man, Seika studied him a bit more closely. When he had come out of the diner, if she recalled correctly, he'd had dark eyes- not exactly brown, but something a bit colder, closer to a deep purple or blue. It had been difficult to identify the correct shade from so far away, but Seika found it fun to think about now. "He looks a bit like Solmar," the spirit suddenly remarked, and Seika frowned. She didn't know who Solmar is... either way, he was interesting. Mostly, the girl liked his coat.

"Ehh, where did he go?" The girl's voice cut through the atmosphere that was suddenly very quiet- at least in comparison to the bustling streets in the center of Capitol Crocus. They were now not precisely on the outskirts of the city, but rather in an area whose streets were unoccupied at the moment. Any residents of the buildings nearby were probably either sleeping or out late, having dinner or working evening shifts. Yet, the streets were also empty of the man Seika had been so curious about. "Ah, he's gone?/ Aphi! Why didn't you tell me I was going too slow? Now I won't be able to ask him where he got that coat!" Seika wailed a little bit dramatically. She had been so interested in finding out whether the fur was really that thick and soft to the touch as it had looked from further away.

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While it wasn’t entirely that odd to hear the name, when Thagirion heard that Solmar’s name was being muttered from behind him, a portion of his magic instantly activated. Scanning the direct area around him in a several hundred meter radius, making sure no one was around that might try to make a move on him. Ever since he learned that an organization was after him for his set of skills, he had been more on his toes when it came to people following him around and keeping an eye on him. As fear was not something he possessed, it was more a matter of instinctive caution. From what he could tell, most of the people around him fell into the category of average mages, no one that would really pose much of an issue for him to handle if they turned out to become violent. That was after all something that came with wearing the face of a relatively well known person.

By the time his senses managed to lock onto the person that had used his former name, it was easier for him to muffle all of the other voices around him and focus primarily on the one he wanted to hear. As the next couple of seconds passed, he could clearly hear their footsteps and make out the average weight of this person as she placed her feet down on the ground with each step. He could roughly figure out her height based on how long it took for each consecutive step that followed up on the other. With every gust of wind, he could even pick up her scent, all perks that allowed him to stand out from the average human due to the greatly enhanced senses he possessed. Also picking up on the one she was talking to, he had first figured that it would likely be another human being, though it seemed to him that it was actually some kind of mammal. Whatever the case, it was interesting enough to say the least.

Being the kind of person that he was, he turned the corner as if nothing was going on, mostly because he wasn’t at all worried about being followed around. As soon as he did, he noticed another diner that seemed to make something called “Pizza”, or so it said on the billboard. With the direction of the wind and therefore the scents it was carrying shifting due to turning the corner, he could smell a great deal of things all of a sudden. Tomato, salami, mushrooms, pineapple, peppers, tuna, cheese and a plethora of other scents entered his nose, more being added by every passing second that went by as he approached the place. With his previous dinner already digested and distributed around his abnormal physical form, he took a seat on the terrace by a table meant for a party of four that allowed him to see whoever might make their way around the corner. That way, he would certainly be able to see who was following him.


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"Aphi, this sucks," Seika complained as she trudged forward, her fingers rubbing her arms gently, trying to stave off the goosebumps that were rolling down her skin as it grew darker and colder as night fell further. Just then, a resounding grumble echoed in the mage's stomach for long enough that it was distinctly impossible for either of the bond mates to ignore. Seika winced at the noise. "Ugh... and I'm hungry," she mumbled.

Aphelia offered her no sympathy, instead opting to hop onto her shoulder and dig her claws a little bit into the fabric. Even though it didn't touch her skin, Seika still bit her lip at the sensation. "Ah... your feet are cold, Aphi," she murmured a bit absentmindedly, her thoughts having drifted off to food and warm fur coats. "I wish I could shape shift like you, Aphi. Then I could suddenly become a little bug but with fur, so that I wouldn't have to eat very much to be full, and I could also be warm," she declared. The pair continued to walk around, with Aphelia quietly perched on her shoulder, possibly listening but saying nothing as they moved closer to the end of the block.

When they did reach the corner and turned, Seika suddenly gasped. "Oh my gosh, Aphi, look!" She pointed to a building that was visible from the corner; there sat the man who they had been attempting to tail. He was sitting at a rather large table, bigger than a one or two person place. "That's the guy from earlier!" Aphelia winced at the loudness in Seika's voice and put a paw on the upper part of her arm, as if to encourage the girl to put the extremity down and stop pointing at the stranger.

Either way, Seika did drop her arm, but not to be more discreet. Instead, she sprinted straight up to the restaurant until she was on the ground, nearly right next to the terrace. She shouted over and a little bit up to the man, "Hey! I like your coat!" Inwardly, Aphelia resisted the urge to scratch her claws against the girl's face in a fit of exasperation. Why on earth would she do that? But Seika ignored the strong feelings of irritation and caution that Aphelia was conveying through their bond.

"I wish I had a coat like that! It's so cool! You're pretty cool too, Mister! You're a mister, right?" Just then, Seika's stomach emitted a loud rumbling noise, again. The girl smiled awkwardly before she pointed inside of the terrace. "Are you eating? Didn't you just come out of a diner, though? I'm hungry, can I eat with you?" She asked bluntly, paying no attention to the fact that she was essentially standing on the pavement of a street, half shouting, half chirping words at a man who quite possibly did not want to be bothered.

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Having heard just about everything the woman said before they got within visual range, Thagirion could tell that this person was a bit different from most humans he had met so far. Many of them were quite to themselves, sticking to their work and thinking themselves to be above others for no reason. Even inside of him there were those that liked to believe that they were better than others, Richard being one of those people. The whole reason why his soul was inside of Thagirion was because of how much he had been looking down on his fellow man, as well as the deep-seated psychopathy that pushed him to murder those he looked down on with surgical precision for several years, this being the reason why they called him the “Destitute Butcher”. As far as the people of Era were aware, the butcher was just some revenant doing the murdering as there were never really any traces to follow back.

Funny enough, the “Destitute Butcher” was now the one constantly being tossed into a pitch black void on his own so as to not bother the other souls, or bother Thagirion, which was obviously way worse. As he was just reminded of him, Thagirion looked inside of himself for a bit to see where he had imprisoned his soul for the time being, only to find that he was still wildly screaming and trying to injure himself, only for the injuries he inflicted to be healed moments later. Truly, the fact that the other souls named Thagirion the jailer of the damned was quite an apt moniker. Thanks in part to his pondering, the girl had gotten surprisingly close in the time he spent checking in on… well, himself. As he had expected, she did not waste a whole lot of time in coming towards him and asking him a bunch of questions and making some.. interesting statements regarding his clothing and overall appearance.

“Thank you… and I imagine I am a mister, yes.”

Thagirion knew quite well that he was a male human, at least as far as the rest of humanity would be concerned, though he did not know whether he was a mister or not. Additionally, he did not really understand what the girl meant when she called his coat cool, as it was in fact quite warm. But judging by the fact that she would have liked to have one too, he figured that it might have been the type of word that had a different meaning than the actual meaning. Humans were often annoying like that. Speaking of annoying, it seemed that this particular human seemed to be hungry, though that could work to his favor. As this food was entirely new to him, maybe she would be able to help him figure out what was good and what was not. If so, her aid in the situation could prove useful, all the while allowing her to get some food in her own belly as well as they were a voracious species.

“I’ve yet to order anything as this … pizza, is a new concept to me. There seem to be a lot of different toppings, as well as a lot of things I haven’t heard of before.. Go on, Sit.”

While the latter may have sounded a bit demanding, it was more or less just his manner of speaking as he did not yet possess the kind of tact one might imagine a person who seemed his age to have. Still getting used to all of these mortal mannerisms and other things they’ve had so intricately interwoven into their every day lives, Thagirion would await what this girl and her cat were planning on doing next.


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Seika smiled when he thanked her. Yes! He didn't seem unhappy about her approaching him. "Glad to hear that you're a mister!" She chirped, happy that there would be no randomly calling people the wrong thing. He seemed to be fairly nice and hopefully he would allow her to eat with him like she asked. It might have been a little bit strange, but she was super interested in finding out where he got that coat and also learning more about him. After all, he had been the most intriguing person she had seen pass by after hours of sitting at that cafe and sipping on hot chocolate. Well, it hadn't been sipping so much as it had been gulping down. Honestly, Seika was surprised that even after drinking so much, her stomach had still managed to find a way regardless to be hungry. Oh well, it wasn't really of much matter to her, although she didn't have a whole lot of money, especially after buying twenty something cups of coffee. Still, the mage was confident that she had enough to pay for a slice of pizza, and maybe two, one for the stranger, if he didn't mind!

"Ahh? You've never had pizza before?" She peered at him curiously, her face moving closer to his as she tried to inspect his expression to see if he was joking. "There are! A lot of different toppings, I mean. Which things haven't you heard of before?" Seika pulled Aphelia off of her shoulder and held her in her arms as she stood there, chattering away to him. In the next breath as he told her to sit, she beamed at him happily. "Thank you, I will!" Clapping and accidentally dropping Aphelia, who sent the girl a glare as she slunk around the table in the direction opposite the stranger, Seika pulled out a chair and sat across from him. "My name is Taneda Akies, but, well, if you don't mind I like to be called Seika more! How about you, Mister?" Meanwhile, Aphelia hopped up onto her lap and subsequently onto the table. She sat in front of Seika, her head turned towards the stranger as she examined him with sharp eyes.

Just then, a waiter came by, his name tag marking him as 'Darton.' Politely, he asked if he could help them today, and Seika nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Um, can you get us menus? My friend has never had pizza before? Can you believe it?" She assumed a stricken expression, and the waiter did his best to play along, shaking his head playfully before excusing himself. As soon as he was gone, Seika turned her complete attention back to the coat man, minus the small bit of her brain that was occupied with petting Aphelia absentmindedly. "Okay, so, I don't know what kind of pizzas they have here but usually there's always some kind of plainish pizza with just cheese! Do you know what cheese is? Oh, and when he comes back, if you want something to drink, we should get that! Do you know what water is? Usually they'll have free water for customers," she did her best to explain.

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When it came down to things like reading his facial expression or judging a mood based on his tone of voice, those trying to analyze him would soon learn that this was not an easy thing to pull off. In fact, it was just about impossible to estimate the kind of mood he was in just by doing those things on account of a few inhuman factors. The general lack of emotions and a human soul to match the human body made the way he experienced the world and the whole “life” thing quite different from other mortal or immortal beings born into a body of flesh. Hell, him being a four-dimensional being with levels of power currently unknown to him while in this new form made his experience differentiation a hell of a lot different from anything else he had encountered in this world up until this point in time. Though he was okay with that, he did not need to compare himself to lesser forms of life to know that he did not exactly belong here.

“A lot of these “toppings” are foreign to me as I’ve not yet had the pleasure or displeasure of tasting most of these things. Pineapple, bacon, shrimp, mushrooms, are they meat, are they something else entirely, the answer eludes me.”

Listening to these words as they came out of his mouth, there was no way of figuring out what these things were aside from inquiring. From what he had established already in his time spent on Earthland prior to this meeting, was that the tiny human offspring produced by the male and female variety learned these kinds of things from their “parents” as they spent their young life and anywhere up to the age of twenty or thirty with their caretakers. Why some stuck around longer than others was something he did not know, though he did not really care that much about the human growth and educational cycle anyway. When the topic changed in regards to names, he heard two different ones, including a name the girl chose that she desired to hear more.

“I see… In that case, I shall call you Seika. As for you, you may call me Solmar, that would likely be easiest for people to grasp.”

Leaving that much for what it was with a perhaps cryptic conclusion, being called Solmar seemed to be the best thing for the time being. He did after all look just like him, which was not that strange to him anymore, though it would likely still be quite strange to those that knew him. Given the status he once carried with him as a wizard saint, it seemed detrimental to let word get out as to how he was actually an extraplanar being that just looked exactly like him on account of them now being one and the same thing. With the goal of blending in, it seemed like the wisest decision he could have made at this point, though he would likely need to deviate from it in some manner in the future. Even if he could get away with it at this point, it would certainly not always be that way, though that was a problem he would have to deal with some other time. Because when the point of water was presented, it actually gave him a subject he knew a little bit about.

“Ah yes, water, the liquid that makes up ninety percent of many of Earthland’s creatures, and makes up about sixty percent of our own bodies. A vital nutrient and building material, though I feel the taste of it to be rather bland and boring. If it is free however, I shall have a glass of their finest water.”


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Seika let the stranger talk for a little while, since he needed to tell her what kinds of things he was familiar or unfamiliar with. Apparently, he didn't know what any toppings were. Reading off of the menu, he described some things, and she got her hopes up. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was absolutely no knowledge surrounding any of these things, in his bank of memories. That was strange! Aphelia sent Seika uneasy vibes through the bond, and the girl responded with soothing feelings but otherwise didn't communicate anything. When he agreed to call her Seika, she flashed him a bright smile and clapped her hands. "Thank you, um... oh, okay! Solmar, then!" She tested it out on her tongue and then threw him another blindingly bright grin. "That's a pretty name! I like it! Where is it from?" Maybe his parents gave him it, but she liked to ask just in case there was some cool story behind what someone preferred to be called.

After the waiter had finished coming around, Seika realized belatedly after that she had asked for menus, while Solmar already had one. Well, that was an oops on her part. But she turned back to him and studied him for a few more minutes, listening as he explained that indeed, he did know what water was. "Okay! So you want water, got it! Do you mind if I order for us?" Seika would pause to listen for his answer, and also to take in what Aphelia was conveying to her. Apparently Solmar was some kind of really cool wizard. Had to be careful about those. They could be really nice, but some were mean! "Um, so if you don't know what cheese is, I hope you like it, cause there's going to be some on whatever we order. Unless, I guess, we get olive oil pizza without tomato sauce or cheese?" Seika put a hand on her chin and considered the idea before shaking her head. Olive oil pizza was rejected. "Actually, nope, vetoing that! Sorry Solmar," With the exception of for allergic people, that type was a sorry excuse for real pizza, and she intended to show Solmar the best kind of pizza, for his first experience with the delicious dish! "Um, so going back to toppings. Pineapple is a fruit! It's sweet, and uh, yellow, very fruity," she said weakly, unsure of how to describe it. "Wait, I have an idea! Do you mind?" Without waiting for a response, she held up her left hand and a bubble slowly grew out of the tips of her fingers.

When it was about four centimetres in diameter, she let it fall into the palm of her hand and held it out for Solmar to take. "If you eat this bubble, it'll taste like pineapple when it pops!" She waited to see if he would want to try it or not (if he did, she would let it fall onto his hand or something like that, making sure not to let it pop until it was near his face enough to release the flavor). "If that helped you, I can do that for the other flavors! Um, bacon and shrimp are kind of meat? Mushrooms are... I don't really know what mushrooms are, to be honest," Seika laughed nervously. "I don't like them, for the most part!" She gave her opinion, though, about the flavor. "Wait, I know I said I already understood that you wanted water, but I just remembered... you said you find the taste of water boring, right?" Blinking thoughtfully, she would go on after a short pause,"If you'd get it just because it's free, then get something else! You can try anything. I can pay for it," Seika beamed at him, glad to be able to help Solmar in his journey of trying new foods and drinks.

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“My parents gave me that name when I was born, back in the River village. My father was an elf, a herbalist, and my mother was a human, a hunter and tailor. My father was the one that named me, though I do not know if the name really means anything as I never really got to ask. So long story short, it hails from the River village.”

Even though he was not exactly Solmar in the way the world might remember him to be, a wandering warrior that took care of problems for those dwelling within the lesser villages that often got overlooked by the more powerful wizards and mages, he still possessed all of his memories and feelings. Whenever he went through these memories he possessed that were not his own, they always gave him a strange feeling in his gut, as if his body remembered them and knew they belonged to it, while Thagirion himself did not. At least, not really. While he was not a parasite living inside of a host, he did not entirely belong to it either, even though the body he now had had been destroyed and reconstituted entirely when he entered into the material world from his prison in another dimension. But if he were to tell anyone about all of that, they would likely consider him to be a threat, which meant that he would in turn have to resort to ridding himself of the unwanted variable.

As the girl had decided to lead the situation on account of her knowing what most, if not all of these foods were, he nodded in approval of her handling the water situation. But when she followed it up with a lot of information involving pizza with olive oil in order to make up for the lack of cheese or tomato sauce, or vice versa, that was when he started losing track of what was going on. For a moment, the ground beneath them and the terrace they were sitting on trembled a bit, as if a very, very minor earthquake had taken place and passed away just about as soon as it had come.

“Cheese… olive oil… tomato sauce…. veto?.”

Normally when a mage shook their surroundings, one would be able to tell based on their magic power flaring up, though that was not and never would be the case with Thagirion. Because his magic signature was born at a time when the universe itself had not even sprung into existence yet, it existed on a level human beings, or rather anything from the material world were not able to truly perceive. Simply put, it existed on a scale that was outside of their ability to comprehend or properly register, at least until it took form, which currently it did not. While only being in the material world for a short time, he had learned how to keep his power contained for the most part, though it required a lot of focus and concentration on his part, making it harder to do if his head had to wrap itself around things it did not understand and could not picture. Maybe if these menus actually had pictures of what one was ordering, things would be easier for him properly grasp, though right now, it seemed like his best bet was the girl named Seika.

When she had gone on about pineapple being a fruit, shrimps and bacon kind of being meat and mushroom not being something she really knew about on account of her not liking it, it felt like they were gradually moving forward with the whole pizza issue. Even though he had access to the memories of Solmar, that did not really help him much in this situation as he really only ever ate the same kinds of things. Chicken, Turkey, Ale and water were just about the only things he ever really ate, with the exception of bread. Living on the outskirts of society, many of the things people took for granted in the cities and larger towns were things Solmar himself had never experienced, meaning Thagirion had no way of knowing about it either. But just like that, his sixth sense registered at the use of magic at the table, followed by him witnessing how the girl was forming some sort of fragile sphere in the palm of her hand. Calling it a bubble, she claimed that if he ate it, it would taste like pineapple, so that’s what he did.

“Hmm.. it tastes sweet, but also has a sour aftertaste. I don’t hate it, though I don’t feel like I love it either. Do people eat this stuff cold or warm? And for that matter, is pizza served hot or cold?”

Feeling like these were the questions that mattered in this case, the taste he had had of pineapple had been all too brief. That said though, he did not really miss the flavor after it had been cleansed from his pallet. It had been interesting, certainly, though he had grown towards liking things such as meat a lot more, mostly because of the idea of it. To fashion a carcass into something edible that most humans seemed to enjoy was rather morbid, though most of the meats he had gotten hold of had phenomenal taste for sure. Maybe that was why he did not truly enjoy the tartness of pineapple, or maybe he just needed to experience the real deal someday. For now though, the brief taste he had been given felt like more than enough for him. Pushing it out of his mind, there seemed to be one more thing that they had to settle their minds on, which was the topic of which drink they would be going with aside from just water.

“If not water, what else is there that tastes good. I’ve heard about ale, though I am somewhat indifferent to it.”


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"The River Village, huh? I think I was there once! Pretty place! There were a lot of burning buildings, though," Seika tried to recall what kind of atmosphere the location'd had. Definitely, there had been Rune Knights. Probably dead Rune Knights? It was difficult to remember, as much as Seika wracked her brain for the answers. Either way, she decided to just smile cheerfully at Solmar and say, "Anyway, that's cool! Your parents sound like neat people," she wasn't sure that she had ever met an elf before! But, if Solmar was one, then maybe she had seen them more than she'd thought. After all, Seika didn't realize he was related to elves at all. It was amazing to find out these little factoids about other people! All of a sudden, though, she was quite literally shaken out of her thoughts by a minor tremble of the earth. Glancing around, Seika noticed that other tables and chairs also seemed to be wobbling. Even though it didn't look like Solmar had been bothered by it at all, she was tempted to ask him if he was alright, just in case. Luckily, it seemed as though he hadn't even noticed at all and was busily thinking of pizza toppings instead. Seika nodded emphatically.

"Yes! Cheese, um, but no olive oil! Tomato sauce is good... and vetoing olive oil is good!" She flashed Solmar a big smile, glad that he had perfectly understood what she had meant. He seemed to be doing a lot of thinking and processing, which was fine, since Seika had been doing a great deal of talking! She could only hope that he was understanding as much as she got the impression of him comprehending. Continuing to go on about the different toppings and what they were, the three finally made it to the issue of the pineapple flavored bubble. Holding a breath, Seika held back a noise of contentment when it popped in his mouth. As she listened to his description, her eyes blinked more and clouded over slightly. He.... didn't hate it but didn't love it? What did that mean? He was just indifferent? "People eat it um, warm usually, if you mean on pizza?" There was definitely cold pineapple eaters, especially for those who ate pineapple not on pizza! And Seika guessed that some people enjoyed cold pizza, like that one guy in the guild who always ate leftovers after pizza night but never actually came to the party. She pouted at the idea. The mage would have to try to throw another sleepover night soon, even if only like, three other guild members ever came maximum.

"If you want, I can do that again with some of the other toppings, if it was helpful!" She held up her hand and created another bubble at her fingertips, but didn't make a move to hand it towards Solmar. If he agreed, it would be presented to him and she would explain that it tasted like mushrooms. Otherwise, the girl would just pop it herself and not inject any type of scent or flavor. He did seem to be interested in not drinking water, which was a relief to Seika. Although she loved to treat people if they would allow her to, some of her friends refused to allow their orders to be paid for. Some people were just pesky! Shrugging her shoulders, she listened to his thoughts on drinks. "Um... ale is okay, but there are better things if you wanna drink like, drink drink," she said, thinking about alcohol. The girl had mixed many drinks in her life, and for that reason she was a little bit iffy on straight beer or ale.

However, Seika knew for sure that it was a nice drink that people had during feasts, parties, that kind of celebratory thing! For those reasons, many people had good memories associated with it. "But it's fun! Ale is nice, I think there's lots of different kinds. You could probably find one that you like, just by trying them out a lot," she hurried to add on, "Not too much at once though! You don't wanna get drunk," even if the man was a Wizard Saint as Aphelia kept trying to tell her he could possibly be connected to one or something like that, getting drunk made things ten times more dangerous for a person. Either that, or they made the area around that drunk person ten times more scary for other people. On the spectrum of drunken acts, there were individuals who lashed out and others who were more of a danger to themselves. As hesitant as she was to allow this man to get water, that was looking like a good option if he couldn't decide on something. That, and a cheese pizza were staple basics to get him started on... regular food, she guessed. It seemed like he either never ate regular person food and had some fancy stuff as a non commoner or he was from another country and couldn't understand the native language. "You could also get a milk shake! Do you know what those are?" Since pizza was kind of junk food, at least she got lectured by Aphelia for eating too much of it at times, milk shakes went along really well.

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“I don’t have a lot of fond memories of the River village, though the fact that there are burning buildings over there does not make me feel better either. The last time I was there, it was to stop something from burning it down, or rather, from drowning everything and everyone.”

Even though Solmar had at one point been ran out of the village after involuntarily murdering and maiming a lot of people, part of him had always considered it to be somewhat of a home to him. When he said it was somewhat of a home to him, he meant exactly that, as Solmar had never really been the person to have a home to begin with. As a wandering warrior, he could have never really had a home either, aside from an abandoned bear cave he had been living in from the moment he had to flee from the village up until the moment he could handle a sword and wield basic magical spells. All of those memories were, up until this day, rather hard for Thagirion to handle as he could not relate to them at all, though his body could still feel it quite well. Finding it best to just ignore these kinds of things, he soon turned his attention away from the old life memories and returned to the present that was right in front of him.

“Hmm… I cannot imagine the taste of pineapple to be pleasing when warm, though I must admit that I am not aware of the actual texture of the … fruit.. as it enters your mouth and gets chewed upon. To me, it seems like the kind of thing one might put into a drink, or eat as is. It’s not meat after all..”

While truly having no idea as to what he was talking about as he had to speak based on what he knew, which in this case was not a whole lot, somewhere in his mind it all just made sense. He knew next to nothing about fruit, or anything that was not either meat, water or ale, though he was interested in learning. At first, his interest had only really stretched towards the way in which humans managed to prepare carcasses for consumption, though this quickly started to expand into other variations of food as well. For instance, the whole idea and process that went into the creation of something such as bread was fascinating to say the least, even though the taste of it was nothing special for something that required so much work and time to get ready. From what he could gathered, it seemed the inclusion of meat in things was what made them worthwhile, as everything seemed quite bland or stale without it.

Judging based on what he had actually had before, the type of food he enjoyed most originated from cows, something humans called “beef” for some ungodly reason. It made no sense to him how these cretins called pig “pork”, called cow “beef” and called chicken… well, chicken. Even turkey was just called turkey, which all just seemed odd to him. Why assign special names to certain things like veal, which to his knowledge was just a small cow, yet things remained the way they were when it was a chicken or a turkey. It seemed that humans just enjoyed making things a lot more difficult than they needed to be, a little something that seemed to be the case with a lot of things, not just food. In time, Thagirion was certain that he would be able to have some fun with these beings, or at the very least be able to amuse himself around them to some extent. Right now though, the prospects of getting along with humans were not as interesting as it was to figure out how to order the perfect pizza. And if the girl could use her magic in a way that would help him reach this goal, obviously he would choose to use it.

“When you say cheese and tomato sauce are good, yet olive oil is bad, I would like to taste the former two and determine for myself whether or not we would need to add this… olive oil to the mixture or not. Besides, it would be funny to witness this magical prowess that rests in your possession to see how many flavors you can create. Watching your kind use magic is somewhat of a … hobby, yes, I think that’s the right word.”

It would be very useful to have him taste these things, as well as some of the different toppings one could put on this elusive pizza. So far, it was as if this type of food had a lot of ways in which it could be made, though there were only so many combinations one could call “good”. Besides, the sheer amount of toppings meant that there were one hell of a lot of possible combinations, meaning an equally massive number of ways in which one might utterly ruin this pizza for themselves. Were it possible for him to experience such feelings and emotions, chances were that all of this would have given Thagirion some serious anxiety issues. If he could get a taste of what these cheese and tomato things were, and what bacon and mushrooms tasted like, even if only briefly, he felt that it could mean the difference between himself and those around him having a very bad day, or him having a really pleasant experience. This obviously meant that no one would need to face his ire, thus bestowing upon them the right to have their day be as good or as bad as they chose to make it.

“A milkshake you say? I can’t give utterance to the nature of this… whatever it is. I assume that this is something liquid?”


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As Seika had been going along, asking all of her questions, she slowly began to collect information in her head that would be relevant to helping Solmar pick the best pizza. Apparently, he wasn't a big fan of the pineapple, which she understood! It definitely couldn't be for everyone. While Seika did like pineapple on pizza sometimes, she kind of liked everything. Even olive oil pizza could be okay sometimes, such as if she had friends who preferred it or were allergic. Mostly if they were allergic. Otherwise, she just didn't see a point since tomato sauce and cheese was better in her opinion. Solmar hadn't said he was lactose intolerant or allergic to tomatoes, though. "Okay! I can help you taste the cheese and tomato sauce!" Even though she couldn't exactly give him the same texture as he wanted, she could deliver the flavor as she experienced it. "Here's the cheese!" She formed a bubble with her finger tips and allowed it to float over the table towards Solmar. Holding her breath slightly, without even noticing, Seika waited to see what his reaction would be. Personally, she loved cheese! It was so nice! Even though sometimes, it could be bad for a person's skin, the mage never really had any problems with that, since she didn't care at all. Magic was a thing! Once it seemed like he had fully understood what cheese entailed, she would move on, creating a new bubble. This one would be enriched with the flavor and scent of tomato sauce. Personally, although Seika liked tomatoes about as much as she liked any vegetables, tomato sauce was much better. Ketchup, on the other hand... that was evil. "And here's the tomato sauce!"

She wasn't sure what Solmar meant, talking about her magical prowess or stuff like that. It was confusing her slightly, but Aphelia managed to sort of translate into her head what he was saying. Basically, he thought it was amusing? Well, she was happy that he was having fun with it as much as she was! It was going to be fun to test how many flavors she could create! Aphelia didn't seem to be very enthused at the idea, but since she hadn't raised any objects, Seika clapped cheerfully. While Seika was watching Solmar try the tomato sauce flavor, she decided to keep on chattering a little, "I'm glad you like watching our kind use magic! I like using magic! I think it's amazing!" As someone who hadn't grown up around magic, Seika still found it to be like something out of a fairy tale. Even as much as she used it now, and with it a part of her daily life as in her work, she still was mystified. "What kind are you?" Seika asked curiously, wondering what Solmar was. She was also heavily prompted by Aphelia through the bond, as the spirit seemed to mistrust him for some reason. Either that, or Seika just couldn't interpret her friend's feelings very well. Maybe he was a vampire! The mage had never personally met a vampire, but it was absolutely one of the coolest kinds of species person... thing, that she had heard of! They didn't like sunlight? It was like a plant! "Are you a vampire too?" Wondering if there was something like part vampire mixed in his blood, Seika decided to go ahead and ask.

She was surprised when he didn't seem to understand what a milk shake was. Maybe he just didn't know what milk tasted like, though- that wouldn't be surprising, given his confusion over other things. "A milk shake... is dairy! It's like, um, ice cream... or milk... you know? Kind of like a smoothie! The flavor could be anything, though! Like vanilla," Seika eyed him to see if she was making any sense. Perhaps the best thing to do was try to help him decide on a flavor he liked. Textures were hard to describe. If he didn't know what any shakes were, or smoothies or anything... it would be difficult. "Um, do you know what yogurt is?" It was kind of a similar consistency? With any luck, he would have been familiar with at least one of the things she had mentioned. Otherwise, it would be kind of difficult to communicate to Solmar exactly what the texture of a milkshake felt like on the tongue. Still, if all else failed, they could just order whatever! As long as he wasn't allergic to anything, there was no harm in having extra food. It could all be packed up and eaten as take out as well, without waste. Money wasn't an issue, so Seika was happy to treat Solmar. Aphelia seemed a bit disgruntled at the idea of just ordering things willy nilly, but the feline wouldn't say anything about it at the moment. Though she was still suspicious of Solmar's intentions as a supposedly incredibly strong mage, she already knew Seika's business was her own business. While she liked to poke her nose into it, the spirit often couldn't be bothered and understood the need for her own privacy. As long as Seika's safety wasn't put at a huge risk, she would let her do practically whatever the mage desired.

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Presented with two more bubbles, he took one on each hand and had them bounce on top of each of his index fingers. Pondering on which one to eat first, there was something about the cat that was with the girl that felt off. He could clearly sense that it was magical in nature, though that was not the part that felt strange to him. It was as if the animal was judging him, which to most humans of Earthland was something they all knew to be true due to the kind of species it belonged, and them being notorious dicks. But even had he known that much, it was still quite different in this case as the magics he could sense around the three beings at the table were all quite different from being mere animals that possessed just a shred of ethernano from mother nature. For the time being, he only stared at the cat with his regular blank stare in attempt to figure it out before his mind went back to the two bubbles he was still holding, making him look a whole lot less menacing.

Putting the first into his mouth, he immediately felt different than with the pineapple, knowing that this was going to be the kind of something that he would like in different situations. Where pineapple seemed to be the kind of thing that would be good only under special circumstances, this tomato stuff felt different, better. Even though it was another one of those things that was not meat, he could certainly see himself eating more of this stuff, especially if it was meant to be put onto something else to make it better. When the flavor quickly faded, he did not waste a whole lot of time before putting the second bubble into his mouth so as to taste this cheese next. Unlike the previous two things he had tasted, he was really not quite sure about this stuff as it was not potent enough for him to dislike it, nor did it bring feelings of joy. Still tasting a little bit of the tomato stuff when he tasted the cheese though, Thagirion could tell that the mixing of the two flavors would probably be a good idea.

“I like the taste of these things far more than the previous one.. the pineapple one. I would like to have these two things on my pizza, yet I do not know what they look like or what their texture might be like. Were I capable of it, it might even make me anxious.”

Throughout his life, even though he was mortal in the sense that his mother had been human and his father had been an elf, Solmar had only ever experienced feelings of anxiety a few times. Most of it came at the start of battles he might not be able to come back from with all of his limbs or his life attached. So while Thagirion was capable of describing the sensation, it did not actually influence him or his decisions at all, simply because he stood above that kind of human emotion. When his mind returned from pondering, it seemed that he had missed out on a few things the girl had brought up, things that seemed like they might have been instrumental to the dining experience. Doing his best to recall all that he had heard, words such as smoothy, ice cream and milk passed back and forth through his mind as they were just that. Words. They still existed without context as he had no idea what they were or what they looked like as of yet. But out of all of the things she stated, there was one thing in particular that sounded odd.

“Am I a vampire? To answer that question, I would need to know what a vampire is. Is it some sort of status? A species? A title? Perhaps something edible?”


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Seika put a hand on her chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. So he liked the tomato sauce and cheese! That was great! And as a result, no matter how the girl tried to maintain a serious, wise expression, she couldn't help but break into a smile. "I'm glad you like these two and wanna eat them! We're going to have them on the pizza for sure. I already decided that, but I'm happy you agree!" Otherwise, it wouldn't have been much of a pizza at all. Nearby, Aphelia deadpanned at the girl's attitude. There had been no point in all of this fuss over flavors when the mage had already made the decision in her head. Revealing it was a rather upstart move from her. Still, the feline supposed that it was reassuring for Solmar to be able to try the flavors and be given what Seika called the choice of choice! To everyone else, it was the illusion of choice. Most likely, it didn't even fully apply in this case, as the man was entitled to order and eat whatever he wanted irrespective of what Seika did. Even if she was supposedly helping him pick something out. Seika began talking about magic and asking what Solmar was, to which he stayed silent for a while. Allowing her to talk, or perhaps just musing to himself about something else. As the mage went on about milk shakes and dairy products, Aphelia felt like banging her head against the wall. Of course he did not have any idea what yogurt was. Or vanilla. Or anything the female had said.

However, he did seem to be happy to learn new words. As soon as he asked for more information about vampires, Seika perked up and stood up at his questions, slamming her hands on the table in front of them and leaning closer to him. "Oh my gosh, you don't know what a vampire is! You're missing out! Unless you're a vampire, and you're trying to trick me!" She leaned in closer to him, her eyes intent on his face. There was a high probability he was actually a vampire and attempting to fool her. Where that statistic came from, though, the girl had no idea. "By the way, you smell good," Seika plopped herself back down in her chair and blinked thoughtfully as she twisted a lock of her hair around her index finger. "Vampires are like, undying dark creatures that resemble humans. Some of them used to be humans, I heard. Anyway, they drink blood." At that, she paused again, beginning to remember and pick up on how Solmar seemed to be clueless with most words. "Um, blood is that red stuff, well that blue stuff, but you know, it turns red, um, in your veins. Wait, do you know what veins are?" Before she could get out another word an idea popped into her head and she lifted up the palm of her left hand and brought her right finger tip across it, sending a pulse of searing magic through. A cut began bleeding plainly. "This stuff is blood!" Smiling, Seika held out her hand to Solmar, after making sure it wouldn't drip nearby. That would be rude!

Meanwhile, Aphelia kept going back to that odd stare the man had given her. Something was off about this individual. For someone who was supposedly a Wizard Saint, he had little to no experience with much of the culture in Fiore. That in itself was not necessarily unusual. After all, just because someone had saved lots of citizens or taken down dark monsters or mages did not mean they were fluent with more ordinary life styles. However, to not know what all of these were... it was suspicious. For now, Aphelia did not say anything though, content to let Seika interrogate the man while also bumbling around and apparently injuring herself on purpose. Even though that peeved the feline slightly, she knew that the girl could magically heal herself, in any case.

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It was amusing that this little human had already decided exactly how things were going to be going with regards to the whole Pizza issue. To him, the sheer amount of toppings he could pick from were close to being overwhelming, and in truth, had he been alone, he would have ended up trying all of the toppings on the same pizza and most likely end up not liking any of it. While he enjoyed a great deal of things this world had to offer, as there was really nothing to eat while drifting through the primordial void, it couldn’t be any worse than what he had been forced to rely on during his millennia long imprisonment. There, he had after all been forced to kill and devour the remains of his own fallen brethren, keeping the living prison they were in from drawing out all of their energy and killing them over time. But all of that was behind him, and there was really no point in thinking about something that would have driven anything with emotions to insanity.

“I find it reassuring that you are aware of how pizza works, so as long as there is meat on it, I am quite fine with you doing most of the… assembly. That said, I do not understand why you would be under the impression that I am lying to you. I can assure you, I do not need to lie, only the weak and the cowardly feel the need to do so.”

Being rather clear on his feelings towards lying and about his displeasure towards being second guessed, it made him wonder if there was something about him that made him seem untruthful or somehow unworthy of trust. If there were such a thing, he would need to reassess himself and work on that, or chances were that he might run into trouble with other humans. Even if the humans themselves were not the issue, he would prefer to be able to make a living here on Earthland where humans hated him for good reason rather than just because he was different. While hearing that he at least smelled good was a good thing in his opinion, what came next was rather strange and unexpected. Following up on the explanation regarding vampires and blood, she stabbed herself in the palm to make her red liquid filling come out.

“So blood is the liquid that is so important to making living things tick. Quite interesting indeed, and you claim that vampires eat this stuff? I imagine that wouldn’t be that strange given how meat is basically a dead body prepared and made to look nice. So in those regards, I would go as far to assume that blood can’t be that bad either…”

With his finger, he would make an attempt at poking into the small red stream that was rolling from the wound and sitting in her cupped hand as she aimed to keep it from running onto the table. As that was most likely against human etiquette, he would look at the red liquid on the tip of his finger before putting it into his mouth and slurping it up. Sloshing it around in his mouth for a bit, he let the taste sink in for a bit before swallowing it down. Compared to the things he had been tasting up until now, it was a bit simple and straight forward. Tasting rather metallic, he couldn’t really imagine that any kind of creature would be able to live entirely on this kind of stuff, as that would absolutely make life incredibly stale and boring. That said, he could tell that there was some form of power in it, even though it was just a small taste, meaning he couldn’t really pinpoint it at this exact moment, though that did not really matter. There was plenty of time for him to figure all that out.

“So this stuff that moves through these “veins” is the food for these vampires? Does that mean that me being able to eat it without anything bad happening means that I’m a vampire, or are humans capable of eating one another’s blood without any issues?”

Making it seem like he knew exactly what veins were, he was legitimately interested in figuring out the answer to the question he had just posed. Because if he looked like a vampire and acted like a vampire, maybe that meant that he was a vampire but simply did not know it. If they were indeed the kind that tricked people into believing they were not vampires, maybe he was so good at it that he did not even know it about himself. Truly, life on Earthland was very strange, though no one could claim that it was not equally interesting.


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Seika waved off his concerns and reassurances about not lying. Even though she took genuine deceit very seriously, the girl had not been too convinced that he was being untruthful to her. Therefore, it was quite easy for her to take his words at face value. Aphelia was less certain about his nature and whether it was genuine. However, she stayed silent for now, allowing Seika to go about talking about blood and everything. Solmar seemed content to let her babble, explaining about vampires and their characteristics. That was, until she injured herself deliberately. Aphelia remained exasperated at that act, though once again, she neither said nor did anything to indicate her state of mind. On the contrary, the mage seemed to be thrilled by his reaction. "I don't claim that they eat it, they do! So yeah! And well, it's different than meat, you know?" Seika paused, trying to think of a way to describe it. Sure, they were similar, but... "Like, solids versus liquids, and all that, but I guess meat still has blood in it sometimes?" If Solmar liked meat this much, she felt like he might not be a vampire. The final verdict had not yet been delivered, but maybe he was some other kind of thing. Not human, right? She would figure it out soon! Or eventually! Or maybe not at all, but the girl was determined to try.

Suddenly, she was distracted from her tirade of thoughts when she felt a sudden movement on her palm. Even though the cut didn't hurt, had it started bleeding again? Focusing on the magic running through her body, Seika followed the pulses through her veins and blocked off the area underneath the skin near the wound. As she did so, she stared at her hand. Just then, the girl realized that Solmar's hand was nearby. Blinking in curiosity, Seika refocused on her present surroundings and watched with immense interest as he dipped a finger in the slowly solidifying blood that was oozing out. And... then he ate it! Seika's eyes widened and she leaned forward, her outstretched arm dipping slightly as she lost concentration to keep it completely horizontal and up in the air. "Ehh? You can't just do that! What if you get diseases from me! Aphi, tell him he's an idiot!" She turned to her feline companion, who stared back, her expression dead pan and clearly uninterested in saying or doing anything at the moment. "Aaaah, how come Aphi always tells me I'm an idiot, but won't say it to anybody else," she slumped over forwards slightly, feeling petulant. It was so unfair, really, the spirit just was so mean to her! Meanwhile, she was listening to Solmar as he continued to speak, but only halfheartedly acting on the outside.

When she heard him propose the idea that he was an unsuspecting vampire, unknown to even himself, Seika perked up and went back to staring at him avidly. "Um... yeah, vampires drink blood, so if you liked it you might be one," she agreed after briefly considering his words. But something still seemed to be a little bit off, to her. "I think you would like, like it though. And need it. If you were a vampire, I mean. Not just have no issues? Does that make sense?" She tapped the fingers of her uninjured hand across her chin. Seika wouldn't know anything about humans eating blood without problems. The thing was, most things could be eaten in like, small portions? Seika could stomach blood, but if she ingested too much, she probably would throw it all up or something like that. Fortunately, Aphelia had had enough of this nonsense, and she murmured to Seika through the bond to just heal herself, as a waiter was arriving, aiming for their table. Seika quickly hid her hand under the table as healing magic flowed through it, sealing the cut but not removing the blood that was rapidly drying across her palm. "Hi!" She greeted their server with a bright smile, returning his pleasantries with a how do you do of her own. When the man finally got around to asking what they wanted, Seika sucked on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Um, sausage pizza, please... ah, wait, maybe pepperoni on one half? So half and half!" Solmar liked meat, so... she'd better include that. Oh, for drinks? Um... she cast an uncertain glance at the man across the table from her before shrugging. "Two vanilla milk shakes, please, and um, glasses of water. Some kind of ale if you have it? Or just like, wine?" She picked a random one out of her head that she'd heard one of her guild mates mention previously and asked if they had it. When the waiter nodded, she beamed. "Great! Thank you so much!" If Solmar hated what she'd ordered for drinks, then it would be sad days. But they could just get something else!

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“Well if that is indeed the case, I suppose I am in fact Not a Vampire after all. It tastes the same as metal objects, and I know that those are not for being eaten, but for eating with. While I don’t exactly hate it, I don’t like it either, though I imagine I’d drink it if there weren’t anything else available.”

As he said those words, he figured that he would most likely never have to result to drinking blood as there was pretty much always something else available. There was an abundance of water on this planet after all, and to drink larger quantities of blood, one would have to most likely kill an animal or a person just to get to it, which seemed like an awful lot of work for something that really did not taste all that good to begin with. So to that extent, he figured that he would likely have made for a very bad vampire if he were to actually be one to begin with. Moving on from that point, he figured that the issue of blood was behind them now, though it seemed as if he had been on the receiving end of making mistakes when he had dipped his finger into the girl’s blood and decided to just have a taste. Judging by the way in which she spoke, this was the kind of thing humans called a “taboo”. While the word itself sounded odd, he knew that it meant something along the lines of “stuff people could do, but shouldn’t do”.

Given how easily she had drawn her own blood, Thagirion had imagined that this was quite a normal thing for him to do in this case, especially after she had been creating bubble after bubble with flavors of stuff she wanted him to taste. After all, if she hadn’t wanted him to taste it, why would she have injured herself in the first place? If she just wanted him to know what blood was, she should have just brought up that it was the very same red stuff that passed through his own physical body too. When she told her cat that it needed to call him an idiot, part of him wondered whether this was the end of the line for the conversation and shared dinner, as he did not enjoy being called such things. Luckily, the waiter arrived at the table just in time, distracting the conversation’s direction away from an eventful end and back to the dinner at hand. Listening to everything as it was being ordered, he heard the name of a couple of meats that he had heard about before, which was rather pleasing.

Instead of responding, he just studied the interaction between the girl and the waiter, watching for signs of body language and the general tone with which they spoke to one another. This type of interaction, while not entirely new to him thanks to the memories of Solmar, seemed like they were somewhat forced as one party was trying to be nice while the other was being paid to be nice to the paying customers. Understanding this concept quite well by now, it seemed that a lot of people were willing to put on a mask of kindness, merely pretending to think someone was being nice and funny when they would, in all actuality, prefer shooting themselves in the face if they weren’t getting paid for this kind of thing. Narrowing his eyes as he looked on, he listened to everything that was being ordered as he tried to picture it in his head while at the same time trying to pinpoint the kind of things he liked mixed into the sentences. When the waiter left with their order, Thagirion just nodded at him before turning to the girl again.

“What about what I’ve done makes me an Idiot, exactly?”


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Personally, she was glad they got it figured out that Solmar wasn't a vampire. It would have been really cool if he were, but even so, he seemed like an interesting individual. Plus, vampires could be a little bit scary! Everyone could, though, at certain times; that wasn't a completely valid argument. Solmar himself was a little bit scary. What did he mean, he would drink it if there wasn't anything else available?? Wouldn't that turn him into a vampire? The girl wished she knew more about how that process worked.

When Solmar hit her with the, "what makes me an idiot" line, she stared at him in bemusement. "Ehh? Cause you can get diseases! Like, what if you end up dying in a couple of months because of drinking my blood??" There was no telling whether it was safe or not! Every time Seika did something that was a bad judgment call, like with not enough thinking through before hand, the feline was more than happy to confront and insult her. So why was this any different? Still pouting slightly, the girl tried to shake her head away from her belligerence. She honestly couldn't understand why Solmar was so enthusiastic to get possibly harmful infections due to ingesting something like a stranger's blood. Although, maybe they were more like friends now? Wondering if that changed anything, she decided since the pizza hadn't actually arrived, they might not technically be friends yet. After all, this was their first meeting. Feeling proud of herself for this deduction, the girl leaned on her elbows as she blinked at the other mage with interest.

"Solmar, so if you're not a vampire, what do you think you are?" Her voice burned with curiosity as she continued to examine the other person with half curiosity, half confusion. It was really straightforward what Seika was- a human, of course! No matter whether or not her core was intermingled with a spirit's, at the end of the day she had all of the same characteristics as regular old people. Something about Solmar was a lot different, though. "Do you know what an idiot is?" She asked on an after thought. Maybe it was possible that he simply couldn't place the definition of the word, in which case she would say, "Well, anyway... if you don't like being called an idiot, I'm sorry, but also, you shouldn't do things that could hurt you!" Seika would try to apologize but at the same time, she felt a bit miffed that he wasn't seeming to understand the dangers that came with just straight up consuming a stranger's blood. It wasn't as though someone held out their hand for someone else to bite, instead of shake! Although, that was different... she did make sense of the difference...

Anyway, she wouldn't apologize for trying to get Aphelia to just be fair! But she would say sorry if she hurt his feelings. That wasn't nice, or what she intended. "Um... sorry," Seika would finally say uncertainly, her tone mostly confused and little bit unsure but also sounding genuine.

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As one might expect, talk about diseases, falling ill and dying were the kind of topics most people would find odd and scary. While Thagirion was not physically capable of finding things scary, he could still find things odd when they did not go as they were supposed to in his head. To him, the concept of dying in a couple of months seemed unlikely, especially when the cause was drinking, or rather tasting a droplet of blood. Truth be told, it wasn’t like he had drank a gallon of the stuff by downing it like your average town drunk. Besides, if the blood of humans was that potent, chances were that people would have just stopped using magic and started tossing balloons filled with human blood or filled other containers with it so they could douse their foes in the stuff. But as much of these things were new to him, he felt it strange to not bring it up and ask for a kind of clarification. After springing this much on him all of a sudden, he figured that she at least owed him that much.

“I don’t really know how that kind of thing works, though I don’t think I’ve ever been sick before. But when I think about things being sick, I think about trees withering and dying, or people and animals slowing down and dying. I’ve never had that. But if I could get sick from your blood, doesn’t that mean you need to be sick first too?”

Asking only what seemed to make sense to him, he wondered if that was how these sicknesses worked when it came to the people of this world, as well as the flora and fauna located upon it. Because if someone could get sick from someone else who did not have said sickness with them in the first place, that would mean that humans were constantly taking risks just by being outside of the safety of their own homes. It made him wonder how anything in society or nature remained upright, as diseases should have ravaged this world and rendered it an unlivable hellscape by now. But when he wandered through cities such as these, or the forests and fields between settlements, nature seemed to be doing quite well. While pondering on the subject, the fact that she brought up how he could still die in a couple of months meant all that he had just taken into consideration had more or less been rendered null and void.

If people and animals repopulated quickly enough, and plants and the like released spores and seeds quickly enough, they could make up for their losses to disease to some extent, or so he figured. Still, that would mean that others had to be immune to it, or their wouldn’t be a single living adult left in this world as the disease would have killed them. But by that logic, all of the people, animals and plants left would have to be babies because the sickness would fell them within a matter of months after being born. As hard as he tried to make sense out of all of it, evidence would imply that the girl was either overexaggerating, or just entirely wrong about the sickness issue. For the moment though, his mind was taken off of the matter as she brought up how he was clearly not a vampire. Still, she seemed to imply that he was something else though, not exactly human, asking him about what he thought he was.

While it did not bother him that she was inquiring about such things, he could tell that she had been probing him for answers ever since they met. Feeling that the need to know things was probably quite healthy as he had been constantly absorbing new knowledge and learning from it ever since he came here, he had also been trying to blend in. But judging by how this question had arisen, it seemed that him inquiring about these things that were likely common knowledge to most people had blown part of his cover to a certain degree. That was something he would need to keep in mind as he went about his travels across Fiore and the rest of Earthland. The way he saw it, one person knowing a bit more or less about what he was, or why he was. Even if he were to explain it, chances were that no one would understand a word he said anyway, as he often confused himself with why he was the way he was now, and no longer the way he used to be in the past.

“Aside from what I have already divulged, there is one more portion to the story that would likely incite fear in people if they knew, or managed to wrap their mortal minds around the meaning of it. But to keep things short, for as far as I am aware, I am all that is left of the primordial darkness that existed before creation. Or rather, when I was young, there was nothing in this universe aside from darkness, but they took that away from us and sealed us away for millennia.”

As he spoke, his eyes turned pitch black, making them almost hollow looking as he tried to prove to the girl that he was not lying. There was only so much he could do to prove that he was what he said he was without doing some out of body, outlandish transformation type stuff that would likely contribute to him not getting to taste a single thing out of the plethora of food stuff they had discussed together. Not willing to risk that much, he imagined that the eyes would have to do for now. But if there was time, he would not be against talking more about it or showing more of what the things he said actually meant once they had finished their food and got away from most of the people. After all, at this point, everyone saw him as one thing and one thing only: Solmar the wizard saint. And while they were not wrong, there were portions about him that he wished to keep from the public until the time came where it no longer mattered.


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Seika sputtered slightly when he said that he'd never been sick before. "Ehh?? Really, you've never been sick before? How lucky!" Huffing in a little bit of indignation at his sheer fortune, when she'd been stuck inside for days before in her life due to catching fever or something like that, the mage couldn't help but feel jealous. However, she would temporarily suppress those feelings to continue to listen to what the man had to say. Hmm... Solmar was saying more about what being sick meant. Well, she guessed that it was true it could mean plants and humans dying. But sickness could also be much more temporary! Not like, just solely withering and shriveling up into dust. Just when she was about to open her mouth and chime in with this, he pointed out that... wouldn't she have had to be sick if he was going to become ill from ingesting her blood? Tugging at her hair in confusion, the girl needed a minute to think about that. Um, well, technically she guessed whatever he did end up eating would have had to come from her, first. But people reacted to things in different ways! Something that didn't make her sick could end up having a bad effect on someone else. Especially cause usually even if something was really bad and ended up killing Seika, the girl typically wouldn't actually die. Instead, she would come back eventually! So there could be some nasty things lingering in her system that shouldn't really exist in a typical person. Nodding to herself, the girl was about to deliver a response to Solmar when it occurred to her- wouldn't that bad thing still be in her blood though? Even if it hadn't made her sick... so it really depended on the definition of "being sick first" whether that meant she actually looked and felt ill or whether she was simply infected or whatnot. It was a difficult situation, and the girl's nose scrunched up in confusion. Fine, then she just wouldn't answer! Instead, Seika huffed in frustration before shaking her head vehemently and deciding to turn her thoughts away from that topic to something else.

Anyway, it seemed like he was thinking pretty deeply about some things! A small silence fell on the table, and Seika stared at him as she watched him apparently mull over things in his own mind. Well, as much as she wanted to keep talking, she could sense the sternness emanating from Aphelia nearby. Okay, okay! She wouldn't bother the man that much further. Shrugging to herself, the mage let her face rest on the palm of one hand, the elbow pressed against the table in an uncomfortable but also quite nice and lazy fashion. Ah... she was hungry. Like, really hungry. Where was their food? Yawning, the girl vaguely covered her face with the other hand before going back to staring at the wizard across from her, whose face was extremely distorted on account of the water glass in between the two. She amused herself for a little bit with getting extremely close to the object so that his nose became extra enlarged, before moving back and reforming his face into a more natural image. It was still super blurry, though! And if she moved her head a little bit more to this side, then his right eye bugged out in a bigger way... ahh!! The girl's thoughts disappeared in a flash as her elbow slipped out from under her, resulting in Seika banging her face on the edge of the table. "Ow..."

Shoving her hands on her table to push herself back up, the girl rubbed at her jaw. That had hurt. Well, she guessed it was how life went! Pain and stuff. Anyway, he seemed to have moved on from that stupid topic about the disease thing. Cause he hadn't said anything and began to speak about... some kind of story? Ah, now that she was listening to him, Solmar had a really nice voice, didn't he? Seika tilted her head as she listened to him. Yeah, speaking of stories, he would make a great story teller. "You would be so good at narrating things," the mage finally told him very seriously, as she blinked and tried to decipher his words. So, he was afraid, of like, other peoples' fear? Or was there a different reason he didn't want to tell people because he thought they'd be afraid. Sometimes, it was like, necessary for people to just go through that little bit of fear or whatever so they could move on! She nodded to herself. However, it did really sound cool- whatever Solmar was, that was. All that was left of... um, primal darkness? Primal was like, wild, right? Seika rubbed her chin in a faux sage like manner, trying to ponder upon what he was trying to explain.

Suddenly, her attention was caught when something abruptly changed about the picture in front of her. She started suddenly, her eyebrows furrowing together. It had been pretty sudden... the change? But what had changed? Seika scrutinized Solmar before shrugging. "You look nice," she finally said. "Anyway, where's our pizza? Aphi, the people are so late again, I'm hungry," she complained. Rolling her eyes, the feline beside her chastised her gently through their mental link, telling the girl to be more patient. Then, the feline went on to tell her to look closely at Solmar's eyes. Doing so, Seika squinted at the man's face and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Finally, she just nodded and made a noise of understanding. The small conversation was interrupted when a waiter came over, with a large black platter that held several dishes on it. He slid the two pizza plates onto the table, setting everything else to the side, the drinks placed in various spots. He did make sure to put a milkshake for each of them on the proper side. "Hm? Why do we have... one, two, three... four water glasses now?" Seika chewed on her lip thoughtfully as nearby, Aphelia groaned. It's because you were the idiot who ordered more glasses of water when we already had some, she told her bond mate flatly.

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For as far as he could tell, it seemed that what he had been trying to show the girl, or had been trying to tell her at least had turned out to be pointless. She had not seen the minor change he pulled in the facial department, and anything bigger than that was bound to make the people around them freak out. And since he was not looking forward to getting the Rune Knights involved as some of them knew quite well who Solmar was, it would be best if he left things for what they were. She had been trying to figure out what he was, he had obliged and told her, but had gotten no response from her beyond that point. And that was fine, it meant that they could move on to the next thing so he would not have to share anything else about himself with regards to that particular topic. Reverting his eyes back to normal, it seemed that the girl had hurt herself by not paying attention, unwise.

Bringing up how he would be good at narrating things, it made him wonder just what she meant by that. He knew that it had something to do with talking about something that was happening, explaining to others what was going on in a way that they might follow it. Why he would be good at something like that, he did not really know. Maybe she meant that he was talking too much, which in relation to the idiot statement might be the case here. Regardless, it did not really matter much as he could smell that they were bringing food to the table due to his heightened senses. At times like these, possessing that kind of passive abilities was rather helpful as it helped him take his mind off of things. So when the girl stated that he looked nice, he just nodded at it, believing it to be a good thing that she considered Solmar to be somewhat attractive. From what he had learned from the people so far, being somewhat attractive was quite a boon compared to those that were scoffed at just for looking different.

With a fickle species such as humans, it was a wonder that he had managed to keep his composure for as long as he did. Because aside from a few accidents, as well as some deserved clap-backs, Thagirion could point at several human mages that had more death on their hands than he did. Once the girl began complaining to her cat about how she was hungry, he already knew that things were on their way. Before he could speak out about it, the waiter could already be seen approaching their table with a fair bit of food and other stuff. Not knowing what much of it was, he at the very least recognized that the several glasses placed upon their table were filled with water. Why they had gotten so much of it was something he did not know, though he did not mind it either as more was often better than less. Imagining that the food placed in front of them were the pizza they had ordered, while the cold beverage was likely this “milkshake” that she had brought up.

“So… how does one go about eating this … thing.”


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How did one go about eating this thing? Well, which one was he talking about? Tilting her head as she thought over what was all here, Seika finally picked up her milkshake. She pulled the small wrapper on the tip off before sticking the straw in her mouth to demonstrate. "Just like this! And then you can suck up the stuff inside," the mage told him, beaming brightly as she let the straw go. Um... what else? Oh, the pizza! Yes, of course! "The pizza, you can just take a slice, they already cut it for us, see?" The round shape was cut into squares, rather than triangles. Even though Seika kind of preferred triangles because she could take more in one go, Aphelia had told her once that squares was the "proper" way and it was impossible to argue with the feline. Plus, they did let a person get the feeling they had more pieces to eat. She decided to show him again and helped herself to an edge cut off of the pizza, picking at the stringy cheese that was still connecting the main part with her own section.

Finally, she managed to get it on her plate and then held up the little saucer proudly for him to see. "And then you just eat it!" The girl added helpfully, eyes sparkling as she stared at her piece of pizza. It would be polite to wait until he had food too before eating, right? And didn't some people like, say something before they went for it. Or was that not really a thing in restaurants, only at home? Seika, you're not even religious, her bond mate expressed sternly, but she just shrugged off Aphelia's words. Well, yes, but she wanted to be respectful and think about other people too! So the girl would wait until it seemed like he had food on his plate and had said anything he wanted to say before digging into her food.

After chomping down a square in under a minute, she would reach for two more. Just when Seika was about to go to town on her second piece, she paused to glance at the other drinks on the table. "Oh, right, Solmar, d'you want wine or ale?" She'd ordered some because... uh, well the girl couldn't really remember the exact specifics as to why she had gotten some. But it was here now, and if he wanted to try it, she was happy to oblige! Did he know how to pour things? Scratching at her head, she waited expectantly for his answer. It was entirely possible he might not want anything more to drink now, what with dealing with the milkshake and the water and the pizza already.

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Following up on the instructions as they were given to him, the first thing he did was pick up this “milkshake”. As soon as he grabbed hold of it, he could feel the icy sensation on his skin, proving to him that the contents of the sippy cup were frozen to some extent. Wondering why they would put in a straw when the contents were frozen, he imagined that they could not possible be frozen solid. So, as the girl said, he brought the whole thing up to his face, put his lips around the straw and sucked out what was indeed a partially frozen liquid substance. The taste of it was quite soft and sugary, which was not something he really knew he liked before, as most of the things he had eaten up until this point were various kinds of meat. While his emotionally devoid facial expression would not give it away, the fact that he kept at it until a slurping sound gave away that the cup had been emptied out would be proof enough that he had enjoyed it.

“How odd, I had expected it to be different for some reason, though the result turned out to be quite pleasing. What do you imagine goes into making this kind of milkshake, and what exactly is vanilla?”

Placing the empty cup back on the table, he then looked across to see what was left, more specifically eyeing the pizza and the several glasses of water that had been ordered. Watching as the girl was the first to dig in and show him how it was done, she explained how it had been prepared for them already, meaning no additional cutting was required. When she picked up a square piece of this pizza stuff, he saw how entire strings of some kind of rubbery looking substance were clinging to both ends of the pizza before eventually tearing off somewhere along the middle. Whatever the stuff was, it did not seem like it would be overly tasty, but he was willing to let the shenanigans of humans surprise him. So, following example once more, he reached for the plate, took a square and waited for the stringy stuff to let go before he brought it to his mouth. Taking a large bite, he was not so much bothered by the heat, just as the milkshake he had consumed had not bothered him in terms of cold.

“The rubbery stringy stuff is surprisingly good, and it can taste some of the bubbles I’ve tasted before in here. Some of them, I did not really care for a whole lot, but the collaboration of scents and flavors puts the whole thing together quite well. I can see why people would prefer this over something simple such as a turkey leg.”

At first, he was not that fast when it came to eating his food, but the more he got the taste for it and got used to it, the quicker things started vanishing into his maw. While he could have chugged it and continued eating, he tried to maintain a sense of composure about himself as he took a few large sips of water and placed it back on the table. What was interesting to see was how quickly the girl ate, which made his rate of consuming look rather pathetic and down to earth. Not really caring about how fast the other ate, or how much he ate himself, it seemed wise to keep things at a relative low point so as to not draw needless attention. As such, when the question came as to whether he wanted to drink wine or ale, he had to ponder on it for a bit, as they still had a good amount of water left on the table. That said, he had never had wine, though he had tasted ale before. Finding it a relatively decent type of alcoholic beverage on account of it tasting sugary sweet, it made him wonder what this wine was all about.

“Hmmm… I’ve had Ale before, though I’ve never had wine, so I think I will go with the latter, for the sake of exploration.”


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Seika watched with great interest as Solmar took a slow sip of the milkshake. Immediately, she beamed as soon as he didn't spit it out right away. That was great! Although, he probably was the polite sort of dude that didn't go hick hacking out food at the table, right? Shrugging to herself, the mage decided to take it as a victory, anyhow. She clapped out loud as he continued to drink it all, quite pleased with herself. When he began to talk, she made sure to pay attention! Ah... different? But hadn't she showed him that? Hmm, Seika couldn't really remember, but either way, it was good that he liked it! "Well, there's ice cream, and milk, and stuff! I bet you can put cream in it too. Um..." Vanilla? What was vanilla, well, that was kind of an easy question to answer? "Vanilla is a flavor! It's like, a bean though. I'm pretty sure! Like, it's a little skinny dark thingy that you can eat but you might get sick," the girl warned him, not wanting Solmar to end up having a bad stomach because he ate raw vanilla beans. Now that that was all taken care of (she was still super surprised he had drank all of it just like that! Should she order another one?) he still had yet to actually eat real food. Well, drinks could be counted as food, but they were more of... drinks, right? Nodding to herself, Seika blinked at the dishes on the table, wondering which he would go for next. He grabbed a square of pizza, much to her delight.

It was almost immediate, his reaction. He said that he did in fact taste the bubbles she had given to him, which was amazing! She was incredibly pleased just from those few words. Cheering out loud, Seika turned to Aphelia and gestured excitedly to Solmar. "Aphi! Look, he said I did a good job, and the pizza is good," the mage bragged a little bit before she turned back to look at the man, her eyes shining. "Mm!! It's great all when it's put together, right? Some of them taste weird separate! Like tomatoes? Those are kind of weird, but when it's tomato sauce on a pizza, isn't it great?" Not bothering to wait and see if he answered her rhetorical question, Seika plowed on ahead. "A turkey leg, that's so, like, funny! I bet Aphi likes those. I've never had one, right?" Who she was asking to confirm or deny that she had ever eaten a turkey leg was a mystery. But she wasn't really looking for an actual answer, anyway.

Seika finally couldn't resist the urging of her stomach any longer, and she began to eat her second piece of pizza. Still, she paid attention to Solmar in case he finally made a decision about his second drink! This time, an actual drink. Like, one of those alcoholic things. To be honest, the mage didn't really understand why some drinks were actually called drinks while the others were just drunk and they didn't get you drunk. It was an interesting thing! After working in a bar a little bit, well a quite a bit of a bit actually, she had had a lot of fun making up drink names to surprise the customers. Hopefully Mister Laspor never found out! But she was doing a good enough job, wasn't she? People came back, after all! Beaming, she swirled her tongue around in her mouth, trying to get all the sauce and bits of cheese off of her teeth and out from in between. That stuff couldn't be wasted! Finally, Solmar spoke up, letting out a hum that showed he was thinking, or something like that. Ah, he had already tried ale before?? Why had she gotten it then... pouting, Seika was about to pick up the ale and dump it over Aphelia (a poor choice that surely would have gotten her zapped into a crisp by the fiery spirit) or something equally drastic when he said that he would like to try the wine.

"Oh okay! Wine it is! I'm your server for today, Seika, you don't have to tip me though! Let's be friendly, right?" She clapped before giving a dramatic introduction and grabbing the bottle of wine. It was easy enough to yank the cork out of the top of the bottle; even though compared to other mages, she was relatively weak physically, she did have more strength than ordinary people. After that was taken care of, she momentarily pouted, sad she had forgotten to shake the bottle. But then she realized she could always put the cap in later, and plus, Solmar might not like the taste with the bubbles! It was better to let him try it normally, first. Smiling, she overturned the bottle, letting the liquid inside rain down directly into an empty wine glass. After filling it all the way up to the tippity top and somehow miraculously not spilling too much, she waved at it. "Hey, try some!" The mage urged. Personally, she didn't like it so much, but if he did, that was what mattered! After all, this dinner was her treat for him.

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Following the explanation of what vanilla was to the point where she claimed that you could eat it, but doing so might make one sick, he imagined that that was only when eating it in its raw state. It had probably been processed in some way to bring out the flavor and take out whatever part of it there was that could make you sick. While the milkshake had been quite good, at least as far as he was aware with him not being quite the connoisseur on food that he wanted to be, he turned his attention back towards the pizza as he grabbed another square. Finding that the squares ate quite easily, the portion of it that was near the outer crust seemed easiest to use as the crust was not nearly as hot as the rest. That, and when he got pieces by the crust, the cheese or sauce didn’t stick to his hands, as sticky hands were one of those little pet peeves he had. Though he did not really know why, he just really hated having to get his hands dirty, using a napkin to wipe them off whenever the slightest bit of cheese, sauce or grease touched them.

“I see. I shall refrain from eating any raw vanilla if that is the case, it sounds better when processed. As for these pizza squares, I enjoy the pieces that are in possession of a crust as it makes for less messy dining. That said, the crust can be quite…. dry.”

Even though he spoke it out loud, it was more of a piece of inner monologue that was most likely not at all interesting to the girl. For him however, all of these things that were being presented before him were entirely new and in need of proper discovery. So while it was extremely useful that the girl was teaching and explaining to him what things were and how one should eat them, there was nothing quite like discovering something for oneself. So as he took the things she had to say to him, he merely followed up on the explanations and examples so that he could do things right straight away, or at the very least attempt to not make any mistakes.

“I do not particularly enjoy getting my hands dirty, there’s something about the sensation of something sticking to skin that I just do not like. Is that something you would consider to be common among humans and other mortals with skin or hands?”

While the girl hadn’t thought much of his earlier explanation as to what he was, for him, it was somewhat of a weight falling off of his shoulders as it meant that he could ask certain questions that he could not ask of others humans. Or rather, he could still ask them, though that would mean making them aware of the fact that he was not like other humans at all. And one way or another, that might mean that he would have to erase them once they got close enough to figuring out the truth about him, as he could not have too many people running around that knew about what he was just yet. Until he knew for certain that what he was would not be something that would make humans fearful or vengeful towards him, he would keep a lid on it for his own sake and all those around him. However, the way he sees it, if a single person knew about it and felt that it wasn’t all that important, he would just keep it that way for the time being. Maybe if things remained on a positive level, he would show her a bit more of what it meant to be born of the abyss.

“Uhm… yes, I would like to try some.”

Not understanding a single bit about what the girl was saying, Thagirion merely thought that she was just weird. He did not understand what acting was, though it was something that he would pick up on quite soon anyway. Because even if he did not understand, it seemed that there were a few souls inside of him that were at the very least aware of what the girl was doing. They however, refused to really speak out and give Thagirion any hints as to how this was all a play and was not actually what the girl was always like. In a way, it was quite weird for him not to understand these kinds of things when he was actually acting in a way too. His acting however, was him trying to look human when he was actually far from it, but had been moderately lucky enough to have been given a human body that he could work with.


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