2017-11-22: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
- Log: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
- Cast:Sephilia Lampbright, Serill
- Where: November City Marketplace
- Date: 2017-11-22
- Summary: Serill and Sephilia Lampbright meet for the first time. They hit it off like gangbusters.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
November City is a busy place. There's always something happening! And Market Street is no exception - if anything, it's where a higher proportion of things happen.
Right now, as often in the afternoons and evenings, it's busy. There are people everywhere; most of them are selling law-abiding goods or buying the same, though there are some black-market connections for those who know a person or how to ask.
Serill doesn't know how to ask, and it's frustrating her. She needs some materials that don't seem to be used by Filgaia's sorcerers and she has no idea who to bother for them.
She just finished bothering the Crest Sorcery Guild (extensively, over a period of almost a half hour) and is turning away from the rather put-upon woman running the Guild stall in the market.
Even here, Serill is dressed well. What a Filgaian sees is a glasses-wearing teenager in a strange, tailed jacket with a red skirt, carrying a staff with a pair of slight natural kinks to it, one near each end. An astute Lunarian might spot the symbol on the big buttons - Neo-Vane's crest - and recognize the simple wizard's staff for what it is.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia, on the other hand, has been referred to the Crest Sorcery Guild from the library, because she is trying to learn about the kinds of magic they DO have here on Filgaia and she's apparently unsatisfied with the primers the public library has. Having forgone the Foxington Flintlock for a trip to the library, Sephilia is as usual dressed in the fashion of a Lunar woodswoman or explorer --sturdy, practical clothes in shades of green and grey, with a grey cloak wrapped around her.
Chauncey is dangling from the satchel hung at her side.
"Oh, hi," she says, nearly bumping into Serill as the other girl goes to move away from the stall. "That's a nice staff. It looks like...hey, are you..."
While Sephy doesn't manage to sound QUITE like a completely unsophisticated hick, or anything, presumably to Serill's ears, used to the sophisticates of Neo-Vane, it's an accent that screams of bumpkin nevertheless.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
Serill is only interested in Crest Sorcery as some kind of sideshow. Why does she need to know how to do that? She can already cast spells without benefit of runes, and better than they can manage.
Serill is a little biased.
She is also willing to take a compliment. "I made it myself," she says, which is more an exaggeration than a lie. She did finish it, though she had some instruction. It was one of her projects; it's a simple staff, but useful for what she needs it for. At first it seems as if Serill might not have caught the accent.
Then her eyes narrow slightly, behind her glasses. Serill did. She just wasn't expecting to hear it /here/. And Sephi wants the Crest Sorcery stall, too. "Out-of-towner? Well, there's no need to bother /them/. They couldn't enchant anything. I know; I asked."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia smiles and waves a hand dismissively. "Oh I don't want them to enchant anything. It's just that Althena's Blessing works so different from the magic here, y'know? I'm friends with a couple of shamans and followers of the Guardians, so I'm learning a bit about that, and my buddy Arleph knows about Symbology, and I think some of my other friends too, but Crest Sorcery I don't get yet. My names Sephilia, by the way," she adds, sticking out a hand for Serill to shake.
"Sephilia Lampbright. My dad's a famous explorer back home," she adds. "You can call me Sephy if you like, though. My friends all do! And this fellow here is Lord Chauncey of Foxington, my best friend and bodyguard!"
Chauncey does not extend his hand to shake.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
Serill makes a face at 'shamans' and it doesn't go away through 'Symbology' and 'Crest Sorcery'.
"Really? You want to learn /that/? I looked at it, it's not even all that interesting. You need to carry a bunch of Crests around and you can't do anything without them. Unlike me," Serill says. "And shamans? That's not even casting, that's asking someone else to do it. It's not the same as Althena's Blessing at all - at least I have to work at how to do that." She's less down on Symbology, possibly because it actually exists on Lunar (though why anyone who's good with the Blessing would use it, Serill certainly doesn't know).
"I suppose if you're not very good at /really/ casting," Serill allows. She accepts the hand after swapping her staff to her left, shaking it, before looking curiously at Chauncey. "Does it do anything?" she asks, pushing up her glasses as she looks. Well, it could be enchanted... maybe she should pull out her orb and check.
"Oh, I'm Serill," she adds, before dropping the bomb: "Student and prodigy of Neo-Vane!" She thinks it's a bomb, anyway. People should be impressed.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia's expression changes a little. "Of course! Learning is fun, it's half the point of exploring! My Dad taught me that. Besides, it's...it's not always easy to find a teacher," she begins, then trails off, looking insulted on Chauncey's behalf.
"HE does all KINDS of things," she retorts, glowering at Serill. "I learned how to use him all by myself, just like I'm teaching myself healing magic 'cause Lemina doesn't know it--"
Serill drops The Bomb. Sephy pauses, then straightens up to her full four foot eight. "And I am Sephilia Lampbright, paid member and student of the Magic Guild of /Vane/," she declares.
"Even if I'm self-taught right now," she adds in a much quieter voice.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
"I like learning, but still, there are better ways to learn." Serill switches her staff back to her right hand after she's done shaking, and crouches down to get a better look at Chauncey. She pushes her glasses further up as if this was helping. "And better /things/ to learn, honestly."
But when Sephilia straightens up, so does Serill. She gets to rise all the way to five foot one; it's rare she's actually noticably taller than someone else, but this time she is and she's going to milk that for all it's worth.
"Vane?" she says, and then she laughs. "Vane's so old that it barely even exists. It doesn't even fly anymore! Do you even get lessons from someone who knows what they're doing, or do you have to teach everything to yourself like healing?" Not that Neo-Vane teaches much healing, but they will happily point you at the proper tutors in the priesthood, at least. "I bet you can't cast much of anything. But whatever makes you feel better..."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia stomps a foot. "Don't you look down on me, you--you smug jerk-face!"
Sephilia. You are SETTING HER UP for a short joke, Sephy.
"I may not have a lot of skill at casting spells but if you wanna see what me an' Chauncey can do just you keep making fun of me! I can even show you how good I got at healing when I'm patching you up from the thrashing we'll give you!"
Sephy's not mentioning that she's never actually even been to Vane, and she signed up for guild membership while she was here on Filgaia, away from all of the Guild resources. It doesn't seem like it would help her argument any.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
Serill just looks down at Sephilia. Physically. She doesn't even bother to make it a joke because she doesn't feel she needs to.
"Well if you don't have a lot of skill at casting spells, no wonder you had to go to Vane instead," Serill says, with a smug, self-satisfied smile. "I don't even need to make fun of you; you do it to yourself. But let me give you a little lesson, if you want one so badly."
Serill takes a step back and then makes a surprisingly fast gesture with the hand not holding the staff, putting her fingers through some complicated patterns. There's a pulse of magic power from her, but it's small. She's not exerting herself much, and she's not doing anything dangerous.
No, instead after a faint flicker of blue around Serill's fingers, Sephilia has an unpleasant feeling in her boots - because they are full of water, like she stepped in water that came up over her cuffs. Her feet squelch and her socks are soaked.
If anything, Serill looks smugger.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia's eyes widen in shock--then narrow.
"Okay, that is IT," she says, rolling up her sleeves and pulling Chauncey out. "You asked for this!"
She...pauses. In a fit of common sense, she realizes that making Chauncey big here isn't necessarily the best idea.
On the other hand, this pause makes it look like...nothing...is...happening.
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
Serill intentionally didn't do anything that would draw much attention. If people were looking they saw... someone do some finger tricks? It's not like the results are obvious to anyone except Sephilia, and even if people noticed she is pretty sure there's no law against getting someone's feet wet.
She keeps her staff in hand through, perhaps expecting Sephilia to do something. "Physical violence, the last resort of the uneducated!" Serill says, as Sephilia pulls up her sleeves - she expects a punch, and if she delivers one she's going to be sorry.
But she doesn't. Sephilia pulls out a stuffed animal instead. "I don't think he's coming to your aid," Serill says, after locking 'eyes' with Chauncey when Sephilia presents him. "Better go home and practice some more."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia scowls. "You're just lucky we're in a market, or Chauncey woulda given you a thrashing you wouldn't forget. Just you watch out--the next time we meet, you may not get away so easily." Chauncey is stowed, and Sephy turns away, prepared to leave rather than deal with any more verbal abuse. Then she pauses, her shoulders slump, and she turns around again.
"You said your name is Serill, right? Well...I'll remember that. An' just because I'm /not/ a petty jerk, I'll give you a fair warning. The Pyre Witch and the Curse Knight? They're both real, and they're here on Filgaia. I've met them. I've fought them. So...you should be careful. Don't go getting hurt or killed before Chauncey an' I can teach you a proper lesson."
<Pose Tracker> Serill has posed.
Serill /almost/ mocks Sephilia for believing in fairy stories, except...
Well, she actually believes that. She's not the first person Serill has heard it from. So she ends up opening her mouth, closing her mouth, and then saying instead, "I'd like to see you try! Don't slip, now," she adds, with a laugh, as she turns away to walk herself. "Wet stone and all..."
There is no wet stone, or wet soles. All the water is on the inside of Sephy's boots; none on the outside.