Near the Perk, Wednesday Afternoon

[stringstothesoul]

Erasmus had just been trying to explore the town! Maybe find out if the coffee shop sold sweet tea, like the goddess intended! But nooooo, he had to be attacked by snow monsters, and look, he knew he was in the North now, but it was September. It was (what he considered) a cool and crisp eighty degrees! This was downright unseasonable, in addition to being inconsiderate!

Luckily, he had one single, solitary shield charm in his pockets. Unluckily, it only lasted for an hour...and he was stuck where he'd been standing when he deployed said shield charm until it came down. So here he was, backed up against a wall, watching a snow...shark? Snow shark, sure, why not? Watching a snow shark batter itself against his shield and hoping that help came before his hour was up...or that he turned out to be way better at running than he thought he was.

"Probably should've worn sneakers instead of flip-flops today," he muttered to himself, checking his phone to see how many minutes he had left on that charm.

(Open post is open!)

Comments

[deathsmajesty]

"Yahhhhhh!" A sword - a practice sword, specifically, blunted and heavy - went slamming into the shark. Honestly, it battered it more than cut it, but it was enough to make the shark flinch away.

It would be back - with friends! - shortly, but that was an unpleasant surprise for later. For now, Lili was giving him a triumphant smile while trying to catch her breath, brushing back some of the loose fly-aways from her face. She was dressed in white and green, as was befitting a cleric of the Forward Order, and unlike Erasmus, was absolutely feeling all eighty of those degrees.

Enjoy this now, Erasmus. You had no idea how rare it was to see Liliana disheveled, overwarm, and engaged in physical effort.

"Hi," she said. "Are you okay? Did that creature hurt you? I'm a healer, I can help if you need."

[stringstothesoul]

"Hi," Erasmus said from inside his bubble. "I'm fine, I'm just--stuck, for another..." He checked his phone. "Couple of minutes. I'm so glad you got it to go away before the shield fell! Thank you so much!"

[deathsmajesty]

"You're welcome," Lili said with a smile, shoving the sword back into her belt with all the grace of a wounded gazelle. She was very clearly not an accomplished swordswoman. "I mean, truth be told, I was a little afraid that wasn't going to work. I only know a little bit of bladework that my brother taught me, but these things go right through all of my circles of protection and I don't really know any offensive spells." She looked at his bubble curiously. "What color is that bubble warding you from?"

[stringstothesoul]

"That's more bladework than I know," Erasmus told her. He probably should have taken a self-defense class somewhere along the way--again, if his parents could have found one that would take him. "Uh, color?" He looked down at the spent charm in his hand. "It's just a clear crystal?" Did it matter...? He didn't think it did, but his rescuer was a girl so obviously she wasn't a warlock. Her magic would be different.

[deathsmajesty]

"No, no, I meant for mana," Lili explained. 'Explained.' "What color mana you were warding off to keep them away. I couldn't figure out what color mana they were...unless maybe they're artifact creatures...?" She frowned. "I could try to hit one with a disenchant, see if that will work."

Though if it didn't, she was out two mana and any of the really useful spells she could cast all took so much more.

"Oh! Manners! I think mine ran off with the snow shark. I'm Lili." She dropped a quick curtsey, leaving off the 'First Daughter of House Vess' nonsense. They had just been attacked, no reason for company manners now. "Pleasure and honor to meet you."

[stringstothesoul]

"Mana?" he echoed. ""I think this might be another 'different universes' thing, because I don't know what that is. Uh, do you suck magic out of plants?" Look, he was trying.

"And it's nice to meet you, Lili. I'm Erasmus." Oh, wow, that--that was a curtsey. "I'm new in town." And a necromancer, but not mentioning that part. "No one told me to expect snow monsters." At least it wasn't more shrimp?

[deathsmajesty]

"I can't," she said, wrinkling her nose at that. "That sounds like green and black mana's purview. I mean, mana comes from the land, but its more like drawing off a cupful of water from a stream than sucking it out of something."

Okay, she couldn't not smile a little at that image - look, she was sixteen, some things were funny - but she shook her head. "Same, though. I've visited before, but never while things were trying to attack us. I get enough of that at home, thank you."

[stringstothesoul]

"Oh, you've been here before?" Erasmus asked. "Do you know if they serve sweet tea at the restaurants?" This was important, Lili.

[deathsmajesty]

"I mean, there's no shortage to honey or sugar that I've seen on this island," Lili said, like the uncultured heathen that she was. "So I'm sure you can sweeten it to your heart's content."

I am so sorry about this.

[stringstothesoul]

Wow, Lili. Wow.

"No, that wouldn't--that wouldn't work," Erasmus said. "See, where I'm from, it's very hot. And humid." Did he mention humid? Because was it ever. "So we drink our tea cold. You have to put the sugar in before you chill it, or it won't melt." Also, you had to supersaturate your tea solution, meaning it was holding more sugar than it technically should be able to, or your tea wasn't sweet enough. Science!

Obviously this was the most important thing to explain to a girl he'd just met, while trapped inside a shield bubble waiting to find out if the snow monsters were gonna come back before it collapsed.

[deathsmajesty]

"What, like this isn't hot?" Lili stared at him in confusion. Erasmus, she was sweltering here.

She could have pointed out that her home was at war so sugar was incredibly limited, but the way he made it sound like this place wasn't the sweltering backside of a fire elemental drove all other thoughts out of her head.

[stringstothesoul]

It helped to be from where they grew the sugar.

"This is nice," Erasmus told her. "This is cool! I coulda wore a hoodie this morning!"

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana was just going to continue to look at him in horror. "I'm three minutes out from hugging one of these snow monsters to cool down and you think this is cool? Where are you from? The sun?"

[stringstothesoul]

"Close," Erasmus said. The surface of the sun was Florida, Lili. "Southern Mississippi. Where are you from?"

[deathsmajesty]

"Benalia, a country on the plane Dominaria," Lili said. "Is Mississippi on this plane? Or perhaps Eos?"

Those were the only three planes she knew of. So far.

[stringstothesoul]

Okay, 'planes' were things people got in and flew places in, so...Erasmus was confused more. "It's in America," he said as his shield fell, as if that would help. "Which is the country we're in now, but maybe in a different universe?"

His phone immediately started ringing. "Hang on, this is my dad." Once he'd fished the phone out of his pocket he answered it, "Pops? I--yes, I did use the shield charm. I forgot it would alert you when it was activated, but I--well, because there was a shark made out of snow chasing me, is why. No, I--this nice girl I met chased it off. I'm fine. Please send more shield charms, I love you, bye."

Lili might have heard a deep, sonorous voice yelling, "ERASMUS!" right before Erasmus hung up the phone.

"Sorry about that. My dad's...protective."

[deathsmajesty]

Lili laughed. "So's mine. And so is Josu, my older brother. The only reason I know how to swing this thing at all is because he taught me so I could defend myself without magic."

More specifically, he'd taught her knives and Lili had said to herself, 'How different could they be?'

[stringstothesoul]

Unfortunately, Erasmus's father's mindset was too magic-centered for him to know how to teach Erasmus something like that. "I should learn," he decided. "Probably not with a sword. They're not that common where I'm from any more."

[deathsmajesty]

Lili looked confused. "What do they use instead?" she asked. "Axes? Spears? Tridents? Bidents? Bows?"

Look, you had magic, melee weapons, and ranged stuff. What else was there?

[stringstothesoul]

"Guns," Erasmus told her. "But I don't like those."

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana looked at him with completely blank. "What are those?" she asked.

[stringstothesoul]

Oh, Gaia, how to explain guns? "It's a kind of projectile weapon," Erasmus tried. "They use a tiny controlled explosion to launch what's called a bullet."

[deathsmajesty]

Some kind of red mana artifact, it sounded like. "Interesting, but not something I could use."

She was a white mana user.

...Mostly.

"But if you don't use swords and you do not wish to use guns, what will you use?"

[stringstothesoul]

"I don't know," Erasmus admitted. "But I can't hide behind a shield charm forever."

[deathsmajesty]

"Knives, perhaps?" Liliana suggested. "But those do require you to get regrettably close."

Swords at least increased the distance by a matter of feet!

[stringstothesoul]

"Knives might work," Erasmus said thoughtfully. "You can carry them in public, I'm pretty sure..."

[deathsmajesty]

Lili looked confused. "It wouldn't do you much good to only carry your weapons around in private..."

[stringstothesoul]

"Ha! That's true," Erasmus agreed. "But most people don't go around armed any more, at least not openly so, in my world. It's considered threatening, and impolite."

[deathsmajesty]

Lili couldn't help but laugh. "I do believe that anything that truly wants to harm you isn't going to be polite about it, either. I think I'd rather be impolite than helpless."

[stringstothesoul]

"I can't really afford to be impolite," Erasmus said. "I'm Southern. My momma would tear a strip out of my hide."

[deathsmajesty]

"I have no idea what that means," Lili said. "South of where?" She grinned. "Lady Ana and my mother both wish I cared more about etiquette, but I have yet to let it stop me."

[stringstothesoul]

"South of here," Erasmus told her. "I'm from several hundred miles thataway," he said, pointing roughly southwest. "I'd ask where you're from, but something tells me I've never heard of it."

[deathsmajesty]

"Not at all, and isn't it fascinating? That there are other worlds?"

[stringstothesoul]

"I mean, I knew about the fae realm, of course," Erasmus said, because you couldn't not know about the fae realm in his world. Especially after the fae popped out of it like, 'Yeah, that's enough of that, we're taking away your toys until you learn to play nice,' at the human race. "But it seems like there's so many? And they all seem to think mine is really weird for some reason."

At least no one was trying to hunt him for sport, Arden.

[deathsmajesty]

"The fae realm?" Lili asked.

Look, faeries were one of the few creature types Dominaria didn't have in abundance!

Listen...Okay yeah, no good point

[stringstothesoul]

"You know," Erasmus said helpfully. "Where the fae live." So helpful. "...you know what, don't worry about it. Maybe you don't have those!" Which was so weird.

[deathsmajesty]

"I...don't think we do," Lili said with a shake of her head. "We have any number of different creature types, but I don't think fae is one of them."

[stringstothesoul]

"Weird," Erasmus said before he could think better of it. "I mean, I just...can't picture a world without the fae. Or I can, but I'm pretty sure it would be much worse."