Re: Easing Through Eaulir - 119 4A

[Kara Winters]

"Why do most people put notes like that on their computers?" Holly inquired in turn.

After all, the tablet was just a very powerful and compact computer. She was a bit amused that Kaito did indeed go out of his way to pester his brother rather than just use it. Though a good thing.

[Nara-pyon]

"Well, I'm not stupid, I know he doesn't want me to use it," Kaito protested. "I just don't know why!"

"Because I don't want you to waste the battery," Shiro sighed. "I can't get Zeus to charge it anymore because I'm using the crystal for experiments, and with all the rain we've been having, the solar charger won't be of much use."

Kaito rolled his eyes. "Look where you are, stupid," he muttered, gesturing towards the garden around them. "Who needs the real thing?"

"These aren't real suns," Shiro pointed out.

Kaito shrugged. "They do a good job of keeping the plants alive."

[Kara Winters]

Holly looked up at the sky thoughtfully, "Well... I guess it would kind of run under the same principle of using a light to power those dinky solar run bobbing toys or a solar run calculator..."

She wondered, would it actually work though? Was the inside powerful enough to power a better solar panel?

[Nara-pyon]

Shiro looked up and shielded his eyes from the artificial sun and thought about it. Wren had sunburned in one of these gardens ... sunburn came from UV exposure, and that was what would power a solar panel.

"Maybe," he murmured softly, more to himself than anyone else.

It was definitely something worth checking out, anyways. It simply hadn't occurred to him before.

Kaito laughed and waved one hand in front of Shiro's face. "Hello! Earth to Shiro!" he teased him. "You're zoning out again!"

[Kara Winters]

Holly reached out and whacked Kaito's hand in turn.

"He's thinking," she scolded the other neko, "Let him think for a bit longer on it."

Honestly, she felt at least, it took a bit to wrap one's mind around that anyone could make the power of the sun indoors with magic.

[Nara-pyon]

"Hey!" Kaito exclaimed, yanking his hand back more out of surprise than anything else. He hadn't expected Holly to smack him - she seemed like such a proper lady!

Then he stuck his tongue out at her. "He would know what he could do in here if he wouldn't run away from magic all the time," he told her flatly. "He's all about science."

"I don't run from magic, I just don't focus on it," Shiro retorted.

Kaito rolled his eyes. "Right."

[Kara Winters]

"Baring the fact that magic is it's own science," Holly replied, "It isn't a bad thing to have a specific focus."

After all, she could tat lace, but it wasn't her specialty. Though she did have to learn how to do it since everything was made by hand. In fact while Holly knew the principles behind things like spinning, weaving and so forth, they were very much not her specialty.

And they weren't the specialty of seamstresses, otherwise making anything would take forever. That was what spinners and weavers were for.

[Nara-pyon]

"Exactly," Shiro agreed. "Now Kaito, if all you wanted was to use the tablet, go for it. Just make sure you don't kill the battery."

"Aw," Kaito grinned. "But this is more fun!"

But by this time, Shiro was getting annoyed, and he was running out of patience for Kaito's childishness. It showed on his face, too: his jaw was set, the corners of his mouth turned down slightly, his brow creased. His tail was twitching back and forth in agitation.

He folded his arms across his chest and glared at his twin. "Last chance," he said quietly, "or I reprogram the retinal scanner."

[Kara Winters]

Holly didn't get what Shiro meant by that, but let him do the threatening. They were brothers, and she figured Shiro would know what would get to Kaito.

Though the same could be said for Kaito, which was probably why he wasn't leaving.

[Nara-pyon]

Kaito knew when he was beat. His shoulders slumped, his wings fluttered slightly, and with a shrug of his shoulders, he turned to leave.

When Kaito was far enough away, Shiro sighed and turned back to Holly.

"Sorry about that," he murmured, putting his hands together and bowing his head slightly to her. "Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop. He's just ... just like a kid."

[Kara Winters]

Holly chuckled, "He has a lot of recognizable quirks. We'll leave it at that."

It wasn't like she was unfamiliar with Kaito's personality, even Holly had it a bit back in Gaia. Granted not to the extent Kaito did.

"He's also your brother, he's going to pull your tail on occasion."

[Nara-pyon]

Shiro sighed and ran his fingers through his ever-growing hair. "Problem is," he muttered, "he's right. I should pay more attention to the magic going on around here. It's a part of our lives and to simply dismiss it all out of hand helps no one."

He just wasn't comfortable with being anywhere he could use magic inadvertently, and that was quite the danger around here. The most he was willing to do was activating and deactivating the runes that controlled the lights in the rooms, or the shower.

[Kara Winters]

"If you keep inventing and studying things perhaps," Holly agreed, "But it doesn't mean you need to make it another area of study for you. You could collaborate, there are magic users who travel with you, and I noticed that Miyuki is always thinking of new ways of using those runes."

She was a bit like an inventor, despite the fact Miyuki was taking inspiration from Gaian technology, she had to come up with how it would work with magic.

[Nara-pyon]

Shiro offered Holly a half-smile. "Perhaps I should explain," he murmured.

"When I was younger, just after I'd come to live with the Winters family, I found an old book in the public library. I was even more eager to learn then than I am now, so I read it, and since Kaito was with me, I read it aloud. I ended up unintentionally summoning ... well, to this day I don't know exactly how it worked. Ura. My ... ah ... brother, who is still in Gaia. He's a demon, yes - sorry, we're supposed to use the term yokai here. Demons are different in this world."

He shrugged. "Anyways, he's a part of me - my darker side, I think ... or at least, mostly. I don't know. It's complicated. At first I thought he was just another neko, but we share our thoughts, our knowledge ... sometimes even emotions. But it terrified me, the idea of being able to do something that for most people would take years of study and strengthening of their power. It still terrifies me."

He held his hands in front of him, palms up, and looked at them. "I think that's why I throw myself so thoroughly into science," he shrugged, smiling sheepishly at Holly. "I still say I don't run away from magic, but I will admit that I tend to avoid any possibility of using it. I don't know what might happen, and I don't know if I want to know."

[Kara Winters]

"Ah..." Holly murmured thoughtfully.

That did sound terrifying, most people never had enough magic to make something work on their first try.

Holly tilted her head at Shiro, "But you know... in Gaia, people call magic, just another kind of science. I understand if you want to avoid using it, but no harm in learning the theory? If someone else does the magic?"

[Nara-pyon]

Shiro wasn't entirely sure how to answer that.

"Theory is something you can't really help but pick up around here, what with all the magic users we have," he said after thinking. "I mean, we have two elves who were druids in their former lives - Head Druidess, in Lancaeriel's case - and people who are learning to use it. Miyuki, Mirania, Daenis ..."

He shrugged. "But if I were to study it myself, the temptation to use it would be ... huge. And I just don't know if that's something I'd be able to handle."

There wasn't much that actually scared Shiro - being attacked, being shot (although since that had already happened once and he had survived it, it didn't frighten him as much as it had once); but the idea of using magic, intentionally or otherwise, terrified him.

[Kara Winters]

Holly did sort of understand that. After all, magic was a magic user's bread and butter. It was hard for them not to use it because it was part of how they thought, learned and researched. Though, really it came down to the fact (and Holly thought this) that Shiro was a bit scared of himself.

She would feel the same if she had done something that took years or decades of study.

Putting a hand on his shoulder she nodded, "I respect that, and your choice not to learn magic. There are many people who abstain from it, so it's not new."

She wanted to add that he should have a bit more trust in himself, but that might counteract her talk of accepting his choice. Really, it was his choice, even if Holly thought Shiro misunderstood exactly what it was that frightened him.

[Nara-pyon]

The touch of Holly's hand calmed Shiro, and he relaxed and nodded.

"Thanks," he murmured. "Maybe someday."

The afternoon was pretty much over, and they headed to the kitchen for dinner. The rain stopped that night, and the following day they continued on again.

It took them two weeks to reach the place where Kyrie announced that they would spend the Winter. They set up the tent in the shelter of some trees. The forest there was thin, and there was nearly half a kilometer of white sand between the tent and the shore. The water there was pure, and there was about fifty meters of sandbar before the water deepened to swimming depth. The sun was hot when it shone, which was nearly always, and the breeze off the ocean kept the humidity away, at least for the most part.

"Eleven weeks," Kyrie announced when someone asked how long they would be staying there. "Until Winter is over. In Stirring we'll travel north to Poleria. Until that time, we can just relax."

Shoneah was eying the beach with a smile. It had been a very long time since she'd had the chance to swim, and she was looking forward to it.

Andarien still had no idea how to swim, and had never been presented the opportunity to learn, and unlike Shoneah (and some of the others) he was looking at the ocean with trepidation.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki was delighted at seeing the ocean, it had been a really long time since she swam (probably not since she first learned how to swim).

Holly mused at the beach thoughtfully and thought she should have made a swimsuit, now there was something she hadn't made in a long time. Perhaps a tankini... now that was a wonderful idea. It would have to be cotton though.

"This is a lovely place," Lin murmured.

It would be the kind of place Gaians would like to vacation at, she couldn't help but thing. It suited that they were spending winter here.

[Nara-pyon]

"And we won't be on our own for long, I'm sure," Kyrie smiled as the others spread out a bit. Nodding up the coast, she explained, "Water Elves have a settlement a few miles away. And if they don't come visit us, I'm sure we can go visit them a few times. Friendly people, but they don't like others to stay with them for long."

"Why not?" asked Mirania curiously. She wasn't used to that. Her only experience with having to stay away from people was in Illsbruic, where they'd had to hide to keep Lashrael safe.

Kyrie dropped her bag on the ground and stretched her arms over her head. "Purity," she replied. "They don't want their people to intermarry, and they believe that encouraging different races to spend a lot of time together will make it inevitable. It's not quite the same reasoning as other countries, though ... if the Water Elves intermarry, their children never gain the ability to breathe underwater, so they will never be able to join the rest of their people."

[Kara Winters]

"Because the elves here... unlike in the Four Lands will not have Gifts if they intermarry," Lin added so that those who were Gaian and hadn't been with them from the beginning would understand.

Eron was curious, there was a joke (though crude) that Gaians could breed with just about anyone, and have their natures breed true. It was, as far as anyone knew, relatively true. It could lessen with time, but the idea of being without was unheard of. Granted the idea of being without the ability to learn at least a bit of magic was also unheard of in Gaia.

"So the elves between the two continents aren't exactly the same then?" though it was more of a statement than a question from Eron.

He always figured it was a given, but he had no idea how true that statement was.

Miyuki nodded, "We were told that the elves here were created after the elves in the Four Lands... and there are only two in the Four Lands. Light and Dark, when they have children, their children have Gifts."

[Nara-pyon]

"Those in the Four Lands are the Firstborn, the first beings created in this world," Lancaeriel explained. "The elves of this continent are the Secondborn, created ... well, later."

She smiled. "We don't know exactly when. But there are differences. Firstborn can intermarry and their children still have magic. Secondborn can't. There is one disease that can kill the Firstborn, but the Secondborn are immune. And as Miyuki said, the Firstborn consist of only Light and Dark Elves, whereas Secondborn consist of Light, Dark, Water, Fire, Earth, and White. The Secondborn are as they were created, save those who intermarried. Some of the Firstborn changed over the course of thousands of years, and now there are also Sky Elves and Night Elves."

She clasped her hands together meekly in front of her and smiled softly, tilting her head slightly to one side. "History is fascinating," she murmured. "Even when one has lived through it, there is always more to learn."

[Kara Winters]

"It is..." Eron mused thoughtfully.

"At any rate," Lin murmured, "Now that we're going to be settled here for several weeks. Anyone have any plans?"

Which was a short way of asking if anyone had any tasks planned.

Miyuki grinned, "Not really, though it would be neat to take a swim."

"I want to make bathing suits for all the women," Holly admitted.

"And I said I would go look for some more metals, Andarien and Shonaeh are running low," Eron explained.

[Nara-pyon]

"And I," Lancaeriel beamed, "am going to relax."

"With my help," Cael added, grinning mischievously. He reached over and tickled his wife's side, making her squeal and squirm away from him.

"Who knows?" Kyrie murmured, looking around. "With the wind keeping the wind away, perhaps Daenis will have the opportunity to spend some time outside again. She's been cooped up for ages."

She grinned and started towards the beach. "As for me, I'm going swimming." She kicked off her boots and started running for the water.

[Kara Winters]

Holly looked down at herself, it would be impractical (and dangerous) to go swimming in her lolita clothes, and she refused to swim in her knickers.

She sighed, "That's it... I'm making swimsuits... does anyone else want one?"

"As long as it's not a bikini," Lin replied with a amusement.

"Of course not, that would be a bit much, I was thinking more of tankinis really," Holly replied with ease.

Lin frowned, she wasn't that up to date with fashion.

"I don't think I've heard of those..." Lin admitted.

Holly grinned, "Then I'm going to get my sketchbook!"

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