everything in this world is a lie

[imitationsoul]

Who: Miach and you.
What: Attempts to identify her own species, potential emotion draining, general life stuff.
When: First half of December
Where: Various + Network
Warnings: It's Miach so the usual edginess applies. Discussion of suicide and traumatic past is likely, but not inherent to the prompts. Let me know about your comfort levels if needed be!

Also Miach is in the process of discovering her happiness drainage ability, so that might happen to your character should physical touch occur! The drain wears off quickly with such little contact! Let me know if that isn't cool with you and it won't happen.


A.) Library and around campus - first Two Weeks of December

[ Miach is a regular fixture in the library by now - or by good weather on the campus. Any day, she can be spotted lazing about in some corner or another, reading. Those who pay attention to their surroundings must have noticed it by now. December is no different here, but the trend in books has narrowed down by a lot.

COMMON DRAGON CLANS. CHECHEN FOLKLORE. CREATURES OF CHECHNYA. CAUCASIAN DEMONS. and many similar titles pile up and up. Huh.

As usual, Miach is not likely to pay any mind to people around her unless approached thought. ]

B.) Music Room - December 15th

[ The door to the music room isn't closed completely and a soft piano tune is spilling out. Anybody curious will find Miach playing with a gentle smile. She'll ignore any newcomer completely until she's done playing, but once the last note fades, the smile is instantly gone and her expression goes inquisitive. ]

If you're expecting an encore, you're out of luck.

C.) Network - un: werther - December 12th

How many folk tales that you've heard in the mundane world have turned out to actually be true?

D.) Wildcard

[ Literally just toss whatever at me. ]

Comments

b.

[escardos]

I don't remember asking for one.

[ while miach was playing, flat was looking through the instruments. the tone was pretty and he liked it, but he doesn't really need an encore of it.

he picks up a violin and a bow, tuning it as he turns towards miach again. ]

Did your human family teach you how to play?

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach takes no offense to this, least of all from Flat. He'd become an easy fixture of familiarity in the first ten minutes they'd ever met and now his presence and attitude feels fairly natural. ]

Yes. Not personally, of course. They paid for the classes.

[ And she's probably supposed to think that's a bourgeois waste of time, but... music is nice. So. ]

[escardos]

Good enough, no? They give the money and you take whatever knowledge that money can buy.

[ flat plays a test note from the violin, just to make sure that it was tuned correctly. still, he doesn’t play just yet. ]

The schools I went to all had music rooms like these. And since nobody really wanted to have me around, I spent a lot of my time messing around. I guess that’s also another kind of give and take?

[ he begins to play a tune of his own. ]

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach's reply is delayed by the music which she doesn't want to interrupt. She winds up closing her eyes as she listens. It's a nice song, full of gentle desperation.

She's clapping softly when he finishes. ]

Was all of that self-taught?

[escardos]

[ flat bows, dramatically and full of irony. there’s really nothing that special about this, in his opinion. setting the bow and violin down, he smiles as he sits on a nearby chair, crosslegged. ]

Sure was. I’d watch people in videos and movies play instruments and think ‘I want to do that!’ so I’d get every bit of information that I could in order to learn it. And nothing’s better practice than making covers of video game soundtracks.

[ he laughs a little, shrugging. ]

But it’s not that fun once you learn it. It’s kind of like being excited to unravel a mystery—but once you figure it out, what’s else is left that’s interesting?

Dec 8th - library

[marmoron]

[keith's also in the library pouring over books, though he never seems to stay in there to read. in his arms, he has two volumes -- one titled "LYCAN CLANS AND THEIR HISTORIES" and "ARS MEDICA." there's a bandage wrapped around one hand, though the most obvious thing about him at the moment is the air of total preoccupation that follows him around like a toxic cloud.

he barely even registers miach until he practically walks into her, and even seeing the title "COMMON DRAGON CLANS" in her pile of books doesn't even get an immediate reaction, despite how funny that objectively is.]

[imitationsoul]

[ When there's two people who hardly care for one another and they're both navigating the world with a bunch of books in their hands, it's hard not to collide. Miach manages to evade the collision only barely, reigning her own part of carelessness in just in time. Maybe it was her aversion to being touched that instinctively helped her with that.

Realizing it's Keith she's run into, she notices instantly that she should be embarrassed. After having denied being a dragon with such certainty, here she is... but then the contrary part of her refuses that shame adamantly.

So she deflects, looking at his books. The title makes her laugh mildly. ]

Lycan history...? I don't believe that's on the curriculum right now, even despite current events.

[marmoron]

[instantly, he's defensive, shoulders tensing, frown creasing his brow. he had no intention of getting caught up in a conversation -- least of all with miss contrarian.]

Well maybe it should be.

[that's snapped before he can think better of it. but she's certainly unknowingly given him a new target for his many frustrations -- why doesn't the school teach them about the outlands clans out there that have a vested interest in their collective deaths?

the retort, however, earns him a loud SHHHHH from the librarian. unsurprisingly, it goes ignored.]

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach shrugs at that. Contrarian or no, she doesn't really have a counterpoint. ]

All these seers and nobody thought to put a class in place at an appropriate time. That's a little sad.

[ Future vision really seems to be such an unreliable tool. It keeps the times ahead interesting, but it also makes it rather frustrating how much power seers are given for predictions that seem to be of fairly little use a lot of the time. Hm. ]

B

[priforprince]

That's a pity.

[ What is Hibiki Shikyoin still doing on campus after being informed, in no uncertain terms, that throwing money at the school and deciding she's the principal does not - defying all logic - make it a reality? Who can say. But she wishes to be here. So she is.

And that's that. ]

I thought a fairy of music had escaped from the Outlands. Hearing your playing once is enough to enchant forever.

[imitationsoul]

[ There's something weird about being called a fairy after finding out that she is, in fact, not human, but at least Revolution Girl(?) is distractingly funny enough to let that lingering discomfort with her identity dissipate quickly. ]

Oh how the mighty fall... I can't believe the Revolution personified would fall under a spell just so quickly. The power of art is not to be underestimated.

dw hid this notif from me, how dare

[priforprince]

I’m simply stunned.

[ Eyes on Miach despite her refusal to engage the point, Hibiki walks closer. Okay, she saunters slowly. Celebrities never merely walk. ]

You enjoy music?

[ Celebrities also apparently never consider that “no” is an answer questions might receive. ]

[imitationsoul]

Making it more often than listening to it, but yes.

[ Some music is fun to listen to, but often that correlates to the historical significance rather than qualities inherent to the music. Words and texts are more pointed, sharper, than the vague emotions conveyed by music.

Miach takes her hands off the piano and turns around on the piano bench to face Hibiki. ]

Is that what brings you here? A passion for music?

A

[subconmodo]

[She's not the only regular fixture. The library has always been a home away from home for the professor, the perfect place to unwind after a long day of grading papers and coming up with classes.

Nosy bastard that he is, he can't help but take note of the most recent batch of books as he passes by on his way to the science fiction section.]

Quite the collection you've got there. Planning on taking one of Val's classes, are we? Or just looking for extra credit for a class you're already in?

[imitationsoul]

[ It takes Miach a moment to decipher in her brain who 'Val' is supposed to be again. Though her grades are excellent, her interest in the teaching staff is so low that placing nicknames to full names takes a split second. Valvatorez then... ]

Would he know about Chechen creatures specifically?

[ It's not an answer, but the question has more use to her than divulging information of her own. ]

[subconmodo]

Not a clue! Never asked him. But I wouldn't be too surprised if he's been there once or twice either. Guy that's been around that long has to have visited a ton of places.

[imitationsoul]

That's not a helpful answer.

[ What Miach needs is an expert and not hearsay... ]

I'm sure even people who are immortal have travel preferences rather than systematically wandering all over the planet.

A

[aibolition]

[It just so happens that the library is also one of his more frequent haunts. Perhaps literally, if he counted as a ghost but he's physical and people can see him so he doesn't count it.

He settles right down by her, holding his own copy of some bit of Shakespeare. He's not interested in it at the moment, rather, he's lifting a brow at her and the towering stack she's acquired.]

Swapped the light reading for a mission, huh? Any progress?

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach gives him a smile as he joins her in the corner. Socially maladjusted reading buddies are always appreciated, but now he's especially welcome. When they made friends, or whatever this is, she'd still been operating under the assumption that she's human and only he is not. Now it turns out he may just be her only non-human ally around. ]

Wouldn't that be nice... I'm learning a lot, but as much as I enjoy learning... None of this is what I am actually looking for.

[aibolition]

A whole school of ancient knowledge and none of it's any good. Color me unsurprised.

[He snickers and picks a book up off the top of her pile, flipping through it without asking before setting back.]

What is it you're looking for? We can pretend for a moment that my vast wealth of knowledge covers this mystery topic and sate my curiosity in the process.

[imitationsoul]

Outlands creatures that live in the Chechen mountains, on the non-Outlands side of things. Humanoid or capably of taking humanoid form.

[ A pregnant pause ensues here before she puts his book down and gestures at herself. ]

In other words, myself. I've been informed that the hunters did even more of a hack job than suspected. They didn't even reintegrate me into the correct species.

B

[playitagain]

[Nana's leaning back against the doorframe, hands resting on her hips, and a smile on her face. She tilts her head to the side and raises an eyebrow, before she gets a smile on her face.]

Miach, you're very good.

[She thought she might be. And... they agreed to play music together, didn't they?

Nana's debating what to play.]

[imitationsoul]

Nana Daiba, what a pleasant surprise.

[ Not that it's really surprising to find Nana near the music rooms. Miach wouldn't go as far to say she'd set a trap, having mostly come here to play for her own amusement, but this is a side effect that wasn't entirely outside prediction. ]

I'm still a little rusty, I feel. I stopped having lessons a while before coming here and though piano is hard to unlearn, fingers do get stiff.

[playitagain]

I'm glad it's a pleasant one.

[Nana stops leaning against the wall (which appeals to her sense of drama, but really, that's not her style so she can't do it for long), and walks into the room, hands coming down to her sides.]

You did well! And you'll shake the rust off in no time, I'm sure. How long has it been since you've played?

[imitationsoul]

Hmm.... Should be two years since my last lesson. Though I still played from time to time on our house piano or in the music room, it just wasn't any structured practice anymore.

[ Miach shifts to the side on the piano bench, so should Nana want to sit down as well, she's got some space freed up. ]

I'd understood by then that being a picture perfect daughter who does recitals doesn't suit me.