𝒴𝑒𝒶𝒽, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓇'𝓈 𝒽𝒾𝑔𝒽

[the_keeper]

Who: Sabine
When: November
Where: Thorne, Horizon, Nocwich, Borrel
What: November Catch-All; open & closed
Warnings: None really.



𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝒶 𝓈𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅
𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑒𝓉
𝒮𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝓈𝓌𝒾𝓂𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔

𝒦𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓃 𝓊𝓅 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓇

𝒩𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹

Comments

[the_keeper]

Kell doesn't have to give his opinion alloud for Sabine to pick it up. It flickers across his face from time to time before being tucked carefully back away in what amounts to the respect and enjoyment this place expects them to have for it being a festival day all the Summoned are allowed out to, today and beyond.

Sabine's consideration is speculative.

(As is the slowly becoming more defined memories of moments around Kell.)

For all that the opening fireworks make the light that comes and goes in those green eyes a little more in the last month or so—but never quite as brightly and fully encompassing of her as when they first met—she understands the idea of what she assumes is behind the looks. Even in their world back home, whether the details matter or not to her and her parents, she understands the detriments that humans set upon themselves through arrogance, greed, and showmanship.

More than half the time they are sent anywhere, there's pomp and circumstance.

The floats slide by outside, and Sabine studies the ostentatiousness of it. There's still beauty there. Someone's hard work and inspirations (the dreams sown and worked hard for across a life, faintest whisps of memory-feelings of hard work, pride, hope swirling their edges).

The same with everything. From the decor of every shop along the route, the caliber of plates, and the panache of the desserts that look more like colorful little statues than the food they are.

"Oh, does that mean I get two desserts, then?" Sabine teases the threat, reaching out a hand toward the edge of his plate closest to her.

[blackeyedprince]

That's the issue with Kell. He's often too fast to see flaws and faults in a thing that prevent him from enjoying it. He does not recognize, as she does, in addition to the original reason for creating all this opulence, it gave many people chance to exercise their craft, realize their visions and get paid for it. Kell's not yet good at seeing more sides to things than one.
But he notices, she's enjoying the show so it helps to shoo away his discontent with the greater picture of the celebrations.

Kell makes a face, an mock expression of deep contemplation. He's not the greatest actor, but even if he was a star performer, the sparkling amusement of magic swirling about him would give him away to her immediately.

"You put me in a difficult situation. Should I be a gentleman and rescind my right to cake? How then would I know if this is any good?"

[the_keeper]

Admittedly, Sabine has had far more time than he's been alive to watch the full sides of situations (both to the detriment and benefit of humanity, depending on whether they were being talked about in mass or in specific, especially if it was Jack, and yet even Jack, like Kell, was the bat of an eyelashes time—even as that same time had changed her entirely—compared to the time before it).

"To cake or not to cake," Sabine quotes back, even knowing Kell has no chance of knowing who Shakespeare is, and thus losing at least 65% of what makes it a great random comeback, quick, like it's a volley served in a game. "That is the question."

(Sabine makes a mental note to start pulling Shakespeare books from home into this world soon, too.)

"I think that you will have to try it at least, or the bakers will cry."

[blackeyedprince]

"And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

Kell doesn't know Shakespeare so he does not recognize the quote she paraphrased. Yet, there's something about the flow of words in it that sounds to him vaguely familiar. He doesn't know Shakespeare. He does know another poet who also happens to be British. So he hazards a guess.

"That sounded like something from Blake."

[the_keeper]

"Heathen." It's fast, fond, and full of mock offense. "That's Shakespeare."

She picks up a fork and starts into a small corner of her cake, with small, slow movements, disrupting the art as little as possible while cutting through the colors and shapes. "It's from a play called Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and the line is actually 'To be or not to be, that is the question.' It's very famous back home."

A beat. "I'll bring you some Shakespeare books."

[blackeyedprince]

Kell chuckles. He pulls his plate closer to himself. Nobody said using magic is against the rules, he opts for that instead of fork. He's far from clumsy, but also when it comes to fragile confectionery he trusts his magic more than his innate grace... or rather the lack of it. Being born graceful is Rhy's domain, not his. So it looks as if the tiny sliver of delicate construction separates on its own from the rest. Only the melted edges give away that it was actually a very tightly compressed band of water. It is mostly sugar, isn't it?

"Pretty dramatic that prince of Denmark."

Kell manages not end frozen with a fork half way to his mouth. He eats his piece of cake and puts the fork down before replying. Still, his surprise is obvious.

"Thank you!"

He looks back at the river, its floating spectacle and smiles.

"We used to watch a lot of plays back home." He doesn't add that he found most of them boring and a waste of time. It feels like it happened ages ago, in a different life, to a completely different person. "I don't remember who said that, but I've heard they have a theater in Free Cities. I wonder if they have one here."

[the_keeper]

"You have no idea," is Sabine's easy quip to fade off on about Hamlet—the everyman of quintessential humanity and blithering inaction—before they're both eating cake. His choice to use magic earns a slight tilt at the edge of her mouth. Even here, even beyond the pale of a 'death' more real than not and less real than real—and Jack more fully aware of the what if not how much the how—it's still instinctual for her to simply do things as normally as she can.

Magic, and everything she is, was nothing like it in their once-world.
It'd taken years of Jack's life to stop tripping on her toes. Metaphorically.

She followed Kell's gaze out to the parade while the floats continued to pass, and she thought she might have heard something like that once or twice, too. Here and in Thorne. And Nocwich. She sucked cake off the tines of her fork slowly, not thinking too hard about why she could make that list but had never considered actively seeking one out before now.

"The most we ever had was the smallest of—" shitty "—theatre plays at the high school Jack went to, and even then, we didn't go to them. I've seen more on TV than in person, and even that is lacking a lot to be said."

[blackeyedprince]

Magic was abundant like air in Kell's world. Only he truly knew how unique Red London was in that regard. Regular people knew that other Londons existed, and that they were different, but that was the extent of their knowledge. Only Kell ever visited the other two. One hungry, one dull and drab, both empty.
It was considered ill omen to born without magic. A greatest punishment, worst than death, to be cut from it. Even if most people had only a little of it. Most were able to master their own drop enough to use it daily, almost casually.

For all his involuntary stay in Abraxas, Kell has not met a single person coming from world with an attitude to magic similar to his own. It seemed that most treat it as something special, something hidden or dangerous.

Even Sabine, who in Kell's eyes has nothing to hide, whose magic is of such unrivaled beauty he can't help but be drawn to it. Even for her, the first impulse is for the mundane. Kell himself uses his own less here, after his usual behavior gained him enough of sideways glances to make him think it's not coincidence. That he's making people uncomfortable.

It's difficult not to forget about the cake when talking about an interesting subject. That's his weakness, he's always more focused on conversation.

"Tell me about them. The ones you saw."

Though he would need to be dragged kicking and screaming into it, but Kell actually is a pretty good actor.