Far below the rolling tide [Open]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, even after the events of the past few days, Zouichi had not developed an aversion to the ocean. Or axes! Or giant squid! It helped that he, unlike some of the other crew, hadn't been in imminent danger of drowning. He was, however, busying himself with preparing some of the food they'd bought on shore leave, as well as supplies salvaged from the Deepstar 7. No sense letting it go to waste, right?

He'd started work in the early morning, and gotten so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't quite notice that he was making more than was absolutely necessary. What? Cooking was relaxing. And anyway, he thought as he waited to pull a piece of battered shrimp out of its cooking oil, someone would probably eat it all. For the people living in the inn, he was careful to set aside boxes of prepared food. But there was an increasing amount left over...

Stop by, enjoy your ridiculously overprepared lunch. Or just a simple one, if you're an acquaintance. The front door's open!

Comments

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Well, I am human. Biologically and all that but I'm not 'normal'. Not even in my world. I mean, there's alot of people like me but we're not the normal ones on our planet."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"You're a transhuman, then?" That was Zouichi defaulting to a scientific explanation. There were espers on his planet, for instance, with abilities far beyond those of a normal human.

...but they were still human.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"I guess you could call it that." He ran his hand through his hair and shrugged, giving a nervous smile. "But, back where I'm from we just call it being a 'Shaman'."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"A shaman." Zouichi blinked. "So... you can talk to nature spirits? Like Alastirra?"

The two of them were so different in appearance, but he supposed he could see some similarities in their manner.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Yeh, well--Wait? Who? There's someone else on the ship like that?"

Hana leaned back in his chair looking thoughtful. "Huh, I didn't know that."

"But you're kind of right, but only a little."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Yes. She's a tall Draenei woman with some spirit wolves as pets. Are you sure you've never seen her?" She was quite distinctive, you know.

"All right. Then what kind of shaman are we talking?"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Huh, I'll have to go say hi sometime." He wondered where she hung out.

"Oh, you know, talk to spirits, see them, use them, summon them, sense them. The whole package really."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"What's the difference, then? That sounds like what Alastirra does." Zouichi didn't really know a whole lot about the finer details spirit handling. Although he was chased by ghosts once. Come to think of it...

"...wait, do you mean spirits or ghosts?"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana pulls a look of what can only be called 'dude, are you for real?'

"Well, obviously, ghosts are just one of the groups of spirits. Why do you think the names ended up being interchangeable?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Are they interchangeable, or is one a subset of the other?" Make up your mind, Hana.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Yes... No... Kinda. There's stuff like nature spirits and human ghosts and 'god classes' and they all sort of connect and change and--" He sighed, rubbing his head, confusing himself.

"It's all just a hassle. We tend to just go with 'spirits', it covers everything. Because, well, we see everything."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Ah. Spirits are... they don't exist where I come from. Or at least they can't be detected by reliable, reproducible means." But clearly Ildraniath believed in souls, and Alastirra talked to spirits. Hana's world, predictably, would be different from his own.

"Many people half-believe in them, though. Others think they're a hoax. I never had much call to think about it, myself. Is it... unpleasant?"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Well, they're just sort of them. I've seen them all my life so it's not really something I pick up as different or strange."

Hana shrugged. "I mean, sure, sometimes it's not so great but that's life, isn't it? Good sometimes, bad others."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"That makes sense, I suppose." Well, except that everyone who couldn't see spirits would still consider it strange.

"Have you seen any aboard the ship?" Because Zouichi had!

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana gave Zouichi an almost skeptical look. "You kidding? There's tons on this ship. Hell, Mindy and Ruffs place has at least a hundred. And that's just one building."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi frowned. "I've run into some myself. Do they have anything particularly pertinent to say? About the ship? The war?"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"Some of them do. But most of 'em like to talk so it's hard to tell the useful stuff from the crap."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Hmm. I suppose it would have been too easy to have, say, the ghost of the former captain of the ship show up for questioning. ...does the presence of many spirits mean many people have died here? Or are they able to travel around freely?"