#Salil ☆A Demon Son Saving The Day☆ ☆IC☆

[chaosmultiverse]

☠️ for salil

Salil looked alarmed by the idea, his wing fluttering out and feathers spread making it look larger than it was.

"I- Why would I ever do that? I have sworn to do everything I can to protect monsters such as her, resorting to killing her would be a failure in every discipline and ideal I am meant to embody I..."

The smell of fish stew, and the feel of a gravel path and the sound of Miranda's... Intresting thoughts on his situation flashed in his mind. It wasn't just that it'd be a failure of some ideal, no... Like the other Mishra's he was very declawed towards hurting those he... Cared about.

"I mean if it were her or I guess the rest of monster kind I would... I don't know? I would use some painless poison, it'd..." the idea of Miranda dead at his hands had his face pale. "Be like..." Going to sleep.

"I... It would never come to that though, I... Miranda is not someone I would ever use my skills of a... Killer on."

He won't do it, to be simple and not dance around the issue as he was aloud, he did not have the will to kill Miranda, no matter the situation, really the only case where he'd do it would be to save Aaravi and it would tear him apart.

[chaosmultiverse]

Something about the selince... Salil could feel, see a change in Miranda before there was any real movement, any physical change, despite his knowledge of her there was a small pit in his gut that squirmed and strached at his insides anxious to see her reply.

Salil felt a bit like a bug caught in a jar as Miranda stared at him, examined him, it normally would make him lash out and it would have been a lie to not admit his smaller hand tensed, his posture locked up as he felt frozen between his need to not be examined, to not be seen and his need to be kind to this person who had been kind to him, it'd be a betrayal of himself to lash out only for his needs, she was just... He wasn't sure but this wasn't an attack, just uncomfortable.

But this tension, the lid of the jar popped open finally letting him take a breath as Miranda spoke.

It... Sounded like a vow, or a promise or maybe a spell, perhaps all three, he was used to that, the bound of one's word and it's power to shape reality, it was something he once struggled with but by this point it was one of the building blocks of how he understood people and the world, once one spoke something in some form it existed and a promise, a vow? That was something that would be weaven into the stings that kept reality together as he understood it.

"I do will what you say, I agree to this promise between us and I swear to the power within me that I will not will them to know of these things as long as we both so will secrecy." Salil wasn't sure these were the right words to hers but he hoped that it made his intentions and agreement clear, that it made it so the promise was strong on both ends.

Salil's features softened now, his wing retracted back to his shoulder, resting on it like how his cape would on his other shoulder when he was at ease and adjusted it to cover his armor.

"...Thank you, for... Being understanding about that, I would rather not have your kindness be tainted by... That, stuff, in general."

{ chaosmultiverse​ }

Salil looked taken it back for a moment before simply nodding “Right apologies.” He hadn’t meant to sound excited per say, more… He wasn’t sure, polite?

Salil thought it over for a moment, not wanting to come off… Wrong, but if he was being honest

“That would be nice, thank you Miranda, perhaps sometime.” He repiled, trying to sound more… “chill” about it.

Salil looked rather surprised, pleslently so as she started off with a time estimate but that quickly turned to a expression akin to how someone would react to a ally stepping on a landmine, his hands went in front of himself in the humanoid gesture for ‘stop’ and his wing tensed out, feathers flattered out making it look bigger than it was.

“Whoa- I- Do Not talk to them- I- I don’t know if you’ve talked to the monsters who own the camp but I- They’re on a need to know basis, in short and they don’t need to know that I’m specifically gone for a few days or any reason why, especially from someone who isn’t apart of the camp I- It won’t be any type of issue if I just dip for a bit but…” Salil looked to his ‘human’ hand for a moment, some thought crossing hia mind but he shallowed it down whole with a gloup before he voiced it.

“It would be an issue if they had something soild, like you putting in a request for me that we have any connection to each other.” There was a lot in the scentce he wasn’t saying or even really acknowledging himself, he couldn’t fully even to himself voice why it would end badly but he knew in his guts beyond any faith or calovince could compete with that if he let her do that, it would end badly, for him and more importantly for her and his sister.

       She blinked. Startled, abrupt little motions, eyelids drawing down and over her vision, nictitating membranes flashing before their curtain drawn like rolling ghosts, like glimpses of death, before her eyes opened back up to a seascape and to a simple, alarmed stare.

      Her earfins flicked forward. Silence pressed in at the edges, ushered in around the absence of her voice, while his words sank down and into the air, vanished beneath the surface of her mind and plummeted down somewhere dark and deep. Miranda would not say where it headed. She did not need to, not really, not by her own measure. Whether it was a measure that Salil could agree with or not, she didn’t consider. This was not second nature to her. To suggest that it was was to suggest that there was something else, something already in its place, to which she might have referred to it as her first nature, which was blatantly not true. This was what she was raised in first and foremost, this is what she knew, and the life that she wanted, a gentler and softer life with the people she loved, would have been more aptly referred to as her second nature. She had to learn the latter, after all. She did not need to question this.

       Something else was slipping through. A part of Miranda that she did not show to Salil because she did not want to, a part that Aaravi had seen before and knew inside and out. But information like this wasn’t just shared freely. It couldn’t be. There was a price to knowing about this, a terrible cost, and it started slow. Creeping in around the edges, just beyond the lines of her.

      Miranda’s back straightened, so slight and so minorly that she had not seemed to have moved at all, and yet certainly had, because her mannerisms came so different that it had to have been some movement, some shift. There had to have been something, she could not have simply become someone entirely different in some way that hadn’t even required Salil to blink, right? Her gaze couldn’t have gone from innocent and curious and helpful to abruptly piercing, pinning, eyes that betrayed nothing about her and bore down like the perfect edge of a knife’s blade, right? 

        That wasn’t Miranda. That wasn’t who Miranda was. Her demeanor wasn’t frozen up, alien, broadly similar in the landmarks and yet felt like a nightmare, misplaced and mismatched on someone he didn’t know. She wasn’t separate, unknowable, placed away and beyond him by some virtue of birth and of nurture that made her into something beyond human, beyond monster, beyond life and beyond death. Maybe the brunt of her awareness bore down with an intelligence, sometimes, but not like this, not picking him apart piece by piece, taking note of every square inch, of the timing of every breath. She was not still, barely moving, still water without any ripples, misplaced peace and trust, the long silence before the eruption of teeth and of claws from the bushes, of the gurgling scream and the abrupt quiet afterwards. Her crown wasn’t staring down at him, staring down with weight and with fury and with the judgement of an angry god, a loathesome god, a god that had seen every part of that which he was and that which he would be and weighed him against the measure of truth and decided that he did not meet measure.

                And the truth was, she wasn’t. 

      Aaravi would have known that, if she were here. This was mere reflex, a facade she had grown and developed, safe and encouraged both. It had formed alongside her, preceded her even, and now when the topic of such things, of the places and the rules that she was accustomed to and needed this part of herself to attend to. But it was not her. It was habit, and it was old, and it was something that she was getting better at scrubbing out but something like this, something that had kept her alive for so long, would not leave so easily.

      That did not change the effect any, unfortunately. Miranda stared, bearing the full weight and grandeur of her title, and she took in the information, understood it in the way that only someone from her situation could, and the world held its breath for her, bowed its head and cowed beneath the sheer force of her presence.

       It was impossible to forget what she was. Regal. Terrifying. A Crown Princess in far more than just name, who held an iron fist and wielded her title better than any weapon forged by any hands. Fully equipped to speak reality into being, to make it bend to her whims, to drive nations to war and to force dissidents to ruin.

                                        The world grew quiet, and the world grew still.

       “If you will it,” she spoke, voice quiet, not seeming to belong to her and yet able to be held by nothing else, a sound that only could exist within that mouth, “they shall not ever know anything of our comings and goings, and they shall not once ever know the hands of the Merkingdom, Yg’lloze’aa dei if’en Ms’bh-katyr’we, ever lingered here. I am of my honor, and I swear upon it and the totality of my blood, that they shall know nothing of you nor of I nor of the people who have appointed me as Speaker if neither of us will it.”

[chaosmultiverse]

The ground beneath her feet crunched slightly as she stepped out of the car, followed shortly by the slow crumble of her tail swishing over the exact same path. The serf who had opened the door for her had already stepped out of the way, holding it open for Salil to make his own way out, polite and refined and silent in the proper way of waitstaff.

The steps out sat low, easy for Miranda to move in and out of, and with the arrangement of the car that had chauffeured them both here, it was less like actually getting out of a car and more... simply getting off a couch and leaving a room. Low ceiling not abiding, the luxury of even a transitory vehicle spoke more to Miranda's wealth and the casual adjustments she needed for every single aspect of her life.

She stepped forward, stood aside, waiting for Salil to get out behind her. Here, the trees were thick, and they cast dappled shadows across the top of her head, a patchwork quilt of light that made the sudden appearance of her pink scales come as a shock against the dusty, dark red that the leaves' shadows left in their wake. It smelled earthy here, dark and damp in the pleasant way of underbrush and of topsoil, and there was the sound of wings somewhere in the trees around them, alongside the slow lapping of a wide river, space and an absence of stones within its bed calming its currents into something almost trustworthy.

"This is the place," she spoke, squinting her eyes, peering down the path. It was gravel, admittedly, which was not her first choice, but it fit the rest of the scene, and Miranda had not wanted to pause any longer to put down anything else.

Before them, trailing down and down and perched against the banks of the river like a treehouse without the trunk, was the house. One side was level with the ground, the front door backed by rocking chairs and by flower pots like guards, but the other side, although still the ground floor, was suspended on stilts over the river. The banks of the river had fallen away and dipped low, sitting it lower than the driveway and the land around it, and it was in this way that the house easily matched both, providing opposing entrances. There seemed to be some stairs or another, coming down and off the porch down to the river, and some boat with a pulley mechanism to lower it down into the water, but they were too far away still to tell any more.

It was tall though, clear even through the trees that shaded the entire area in dappled shadow. Two stories, probably, with the roofs tilted up into fairytale tents, their shingling a pleasant, happy red. There was at least one chimney, built out of misshapen river stones, stacked on top of each other and sealed, made to bend the smoke away from the rest of the house. There was also some sort of central dome, mismatched from the others, made out of glass and ironwork and sitting above the rest like a crown jewel, the only place caught by the direct light of the sun. The walls were wooden, in the quaint rustic sense, and all around the house wove little paths, flanked by flowers and paved out of nothing more than dirt and sand, and perhaps a few stepping stones, on the rare occasion.

One path tracked off, into the trees, where brightly painted wooden targets could just be seen, placed here and there with some wear. Other paths were woven into the banks of the river, not just on this side but the other as well, little deer paths where animals had wandered down to the water to drink. Another led to some hardly cordoned-off section, only delineated by stacks of logs in a zig-zagging sort of fence, where the ground had been tilled in even rows, like they were just waiting for the gardener to show up.

Miri stepped forward, following along the stepping-stone path up to the front door, covered by its own, much smaller porch. "I thought you might appreciate something near the water — it is hardly what I would call my own, but freshwater though it is, I thought you might enjoy having someplace private to cool off, in the warm summer evenings. And the butterfly house inside! I am quite happy with that one, and I thought you might enjoy it as well. There is the apothecary on the ground floor, next to a small armory, which has another door out to the shooting range."

Salil had been admittedly nervous about all of this for reasons ranging from this all being some weird trap by Aaravi to try and put him back on their mother's path to worrying that if anyone found out they would hurt him or Miranda, not that concisely he could name who would be doing the hurting. Either way he had been nervous.

But there was also excitement, because Miranda was very good at making a pleasant space around themselves, when he was spending time with her it didn't feel like the usual high stikes world he normally occupied, maybe... A space for him, by her, would carry this peace too.

"...Thank you again for this, I really don't know how I'll repay your kindness." The idealic woods scene reminded Salil of the woods he used to explore as a child, of streams he'd play in and birds he'd mimic.

As the pair reached the clearing where the house stood, warm and inviting Salil paused, stunned for a moment really looking at this.

He felt so overwhelmed, he was happy, he was striken by the grief of missing a place you had never been before, he missed his old house, he felt a guilt he didn't feel this happiness when he had been taken to his fathers.

A lot was hitting him at once and it left him frozen in awe at this, at having a home, at owing it to... A sister in law.

He bit his bottom lip, as he struggled to keep his tearducts closed, hold it in and be strong, it'd be... Wrong to distract from Miranda's kindness by crying like a baby.

He was still collecting himself, putting together what he was looking at when Miranda spoke.

"I- I really don't know what to say, I- You really put a lot of thought into this thank you." Salil'a voice was weaker and more gentle than Miranda had heard it before, he struggled to not tear up still.

[chaosmultiverse]

Nip-nip-nips her brother-in-law. Not hard, of course, just enough to make sure she catches his attention. That's what's really important, of course, and especially on this topic.

"Salil, you merely have a cabin at Camp Rival Camp, correct? You... You would not be opposed to, perhaps, having a true place of your own? Someplace nice, which you can show off, and to truly claim as your own away from it all?"

Salil was a little alarmed at the nipping, tensing up until he saw it was Miranda, while he was still... Unsure what she was playing at, she probably won't openly attack him or the like, so it must have been communicative so he turned to her, paying attention.

He... Was rather stunned for a moment afyer hearing her out, why- Why would someone offer him that?

"I- I also have lodging with my father-" He quickly tried to explain with some... Haste, like he expected something bad to happen if he didn't blurt it out in time.

"But admittedly it isn't available right now, so I have been living in a camp cabin. I... I don't understand though why you are offering to get me a place of my own, I- There's people who need that more, I have places to rest my head, isn't that enough?"

Salil wasn't sure how to feel at the suggestion that... Perhaps he should have a space wholly his own, what he was given should be enough, he wasn't something that needed lots of comfort...

But that won't really stop Miranda would it? She seemed to want to pour good fortune over him like a tundering rain storm, it... Had him in egde to some degree, for when the shoe would drop, so there was some hesitantce to live in a space controlled by her because it was simply too good & kind to be true.

[chaosmultiverse]

Salil peered up confused as Miranda started, what... What had she been disingenuous about? Was it related to Aarav-

Hunting?

He quietly listened to what she was telling him, it was interesting to learn more about her home, already it was giving him some context behind her gifts of food but he could tell she was going somewhere with this, probably related to what he said about his camp's situation with food. It was hardly as thorugh the food came to the doorsteps,

And there it was, her point.

And she makes a... Good point, he supposed it was a little odd that the powers behind the camp, which he knew well were powerful and wealthy and definitely able to afford luxury...

But no, the camp was meant to be tough, to prepare for the harshness of the world, where food won't always be provided...

"I- It isn't really the same though, the camp isn't really... Somewhere to impress? It's meant as a training grounds, the... Empty dinning hall is meant to keep us from getting comfortable, lazy." He tried to deflect, his voice was a little... Creaky thorugh.

Salil looked at the plate of food sitting on his lap, frowning a little as he tried to figure out how to word this.

"I cannot speak to others worlds, to other monsters or to humans, but in mine something like the feast you described would have to be earned like every other meal, no one is trying to... I don't know- I am not something of polite culture, to be short, so something from it would be... Different than what I normally deserve, I would need to do something out of the norm." Salil hesitantly explained, he doubted she would really get what he was saying but he felt a need to defend the honor of Camp Rival Camp, they were given what they earned.

"Now of course there's... outliers, you've been gifting me food so of course I am going to eat it, doesn't matter if I haven't earned it, it would be rude to turn my nose at it and then there are some festivals where large feasts are expected for the mere challenge of living to see them once again, but again these are outliers." He hoped that this would help Miranda see how obviously fine this was, how it was totally fine he had to go into dangers filled woods for food because the authorities around him thought he had to earn food and so did his fellow campers, this was fine to him.

It hadn't always been but after awhile one learns to eat what's on their plate and if empty go fill it themself.

{ chaosmultiverse​ }

For a moment he was alarmed by the noise but it then became clear she was fine, so he avoided commenting on it. Though he couldn’t help but wonder if she was laughing at him.

“Hm, right…” His voice was quiet, he… Still couldn’t totally trust this wasn’t set up by Aarav or perhaps on her behalf, kindness without some sort of expectation was�� Not apart of the world he lived in, it was a part of fairy tales.

Though looking across at Miranda, at the light shining from her scales and the many things that weren’t reflected in his world… He supposed she already had a very other worldly sense to her, so…

Why would she work off of what existed in his world?

Salil let out a awkward laugh “I mean, me and Batniss are hunters and Dimitri is… Picky about blood sources so… It’s really only the issue for Monty.” Salil excused “It’s honestly kind of funny, the dinning hall is just, really full of stuff like bugs and random humans without a clue what’s going on.”

The camp was simply not cuddling him, that’s how it was framed. He was a aldult now, so it’d be childish to expect anything to be handed out without a fight.

Salil took a moment to accept what Miranda was saying, that it wasn’t a brother, that… It wasn’t a drain or anything, there wasn’t anything in how she explained it that left doubt that maybe she was juat being nice. No for her, a meal, no matter what it was wasn’t some sort of struggle to get, so… Some nicely cooked fish? How could someone turn that down?

“I see… Thank you for sharing that with me, I’ll say that I haven’t had fish quite like this before, I like it.”

      The line of Miranda’s mouth pinched in for a moment, pulling in tight and tense until she spoke again, overcome with a line of thought that she had to offer up. It was automatic, compelled, something that she could not sit idly by without stating. Natural, even, by some turn of the word.

       She couldn’t just leave it alone. It was something that was close to her, an aspect of culture that she felt all too distant from now, discarded from, not belonging here nor there as though her relationship with the Merkingdom crown had rejected her entirely from belonging to any of her people or their customs. Which was not inaccurate, in a way, as the Merkingdom was the primary lens through which she had slotted into her people’s way of life, but so too did that mean that she was all too aware that there were things outside of it. The Merkingdom would be the death of her, but it was also a surefire way for her to know that she belonged to a world and a system with many moving parts, and that all functioned together to do anything at all. 

       And, so too, was Miranda still an ambassador from the Merkingdom. Her job, the training for it, and the experiences that she had doing so were all still there. She all still wanted her landfolk to understand. She wanted them all to see her, to see her people, for what they were. She wanted them to come in, to know her, to exist not just as someone else but as a world and a life so rich and vibrant and entirely their own, as much as all that her landfolk had ever known.

       “You know,” she spoke, slower now, staring down at the fire as though netted in thought, “I fear I may have been disingenuous, a little bit. On accident, perhaps, surely you understand why, but still.

       I do talk a lot about how my people hunt and that we are hunters, and this is true. But… so too is the fact that most of my people do not actually hunt for their food. Even of those who make and farm the food, actively hunting makes up a much smaller fraction of it than I may have been getting across, perhaps.

      What my people do is… Well, we create buildings, yes. Or some other structure or what have you, and the thing that I have noticed about our buildings and yours is that you seldom invite anything else inside beside yourselves. I think the land is different about that in general, truly, because underwater that is simply not… possible, in the same degree. If we were to make anywhere or anything, then something else would get inside and move into that same space with us, and if it was not mobile, then it would grow on top of what we make.

      So we merely… invite it inside. It can get messy otherwise, hard to control — but if you purposefully invite others in and create spaces for them and direct the life that grows instead of trying to cease its growth entirely, then you can control it far better. It will handle and take care of itself, balancing out and adding additional benefits. We do not need to clean our floors as much, because there are smaller scuttling crabs or snails who would happily wish to do it for it. We shape and control what grows atop our buildings, because then they are even stronger and better reinforced, and we can employ other animals who might wish to eat those same sessile creatures to assist us. Because there is more growing atop our structures, then other animals begin to move into that space as well, larger animals. Fish which eat the snails and the shrimp and the crabs. Things which eat the fish.

       This is not an insult, but I have noticed that compared to you and yours… All of my people live inside of gardens. We tend them, and they tend us. I think most of what anyone eats is from such a situation, as our food literally swims up to our doorsteps. And it keeps coming, because we provide it a better home and life than otherwise.”

       She paused here, still keep in thought, still staring down at the fire and watching an ember slowly eat up the fibrous heart of a log. It was better to take a breath, quickly, to let Salil digest such information. And to let him continue eating, anyhow.

      “ ……. Which is a lot to say, that — it is… somewhat of a culture shock, to find that landfolk do not find empty tables in an empty cafeteria to be truly insulting. 

      I mean-! Back within the Royal Palace, or even at my own castle, when I am hosting some event or another, we always have magnificent feasts. Platters laid out, as much variety as anyone could ever wish on display, every single type of meat anyone could possibly get their hands on… It is a gesture of power, you know? A demonstration of all of your wealth, of your generosity and the plenty of your people. You feed your guests, and you feed them well, and you provide them with bounty and with variety, and the platters are never empty because you never run out of power and your people never go hungry.

       I recall all too well how many of my fellow royals try to one-up each other when it comes to banquets and feasts, because providing someone with better food than they give you implicitly suggests that you are better than them, that you have bested them in some way. They cannot repay your generosity, and thus they are indebted to you.

      But so too is it an insult to reject someone else’s food. It implies that you think yourself better than them, that you will not engage with them nor share in camaraderie together, that you are denying them a chance to prove themselves. It is the suggestion that their food has gone bad, that you think that it is unfit for consumption, that they are nothing more than the worst, most inedible filth imaginable. 

      And to ever come into a place that does not offer you food, that refuses to give you food, that will not serve you well and will not go to every extreme to insure its guests are tended to with the utmost hospitality… Well, I have had entire lineages skinned alive, one by one, for less.

      It is a violation of the most basic rules of hospitality, really. And my people take our hospitality culture very seriously.”

[chaosmultiverse]

Salil looked taken it back for a moment before simply nodding "Right apologies." He hadn't meant to sound excited per say, more... He wasn't sure, polite?

Salil thought it over for a moment, not wanting to come off... Wrong, but if he was being honest

"That would be nice, thank you Miranda, perhaps sometime." He repiled, trying to sound more... "chill" about it.

Salil looked rather surprised, pleslently so as she started off with a time estimate but that quickly turned to a expression akin to how someone would react to a ally stepping on a landmine, his hands went in front of himself in the humanoid gesture for 'stop' and his wing tensed out, feathers flattered out making it look bigger than it was.

"Whoa- I- Do Not talk to them- I- I don't know if you've talked to the monsters who own the camp but I- They're on a need to know basis, in short and they don't need to know that I'm specifically gone for a few days or any reason why, especially from someone who isn't apart of the camp I- It won't be any type of issue if I just dip for a bit but..." Salil looked to his 'human' hand for a moment, some thought crossing hia mind but he shallowed it down whole with a gloup before he voiced it.

"It would be an issue if they had something soild, like you putting in a request for me that we have any connection to each other." There was a lot in the scentce he wasn't saying or even really acknowledging himself, he couldn't fully even to himself voice why it would end badly but he knew in his guts beyond any faith or calovince could compete with that if he let her do that, it would end badly, for him and more importantly for her and his sister.

{ chaosmultiverse​ }

Salil could feel that she was looking there, he was… Keenly aware of it & of the attention it tended to bring, still… He couldn’t see any expression on her face that was out of place so unless she had been sneering at him the whole time he had known her, they probably weren’t judging.

Salil nodded, how… He supposed it wasn’t something he needed to know, though… He had to wonder if his father simply hadn’t thought to mention details about the people Aaravi spent time with or… If he didn’t know, he had given Salil some maps a long time ago now of that school, in case that in a panic he needed to try to retrieve Aaravi but… It must not have had that much of the surrounding area.

“That… Sounds like a beautiful place to have a home, I can’t imagine what it’d be like to have a whole castle somewhere like like that.” He commented, admittedly outside of the long list of stuff related to Ravi that made it… Odd for Salil when he talked to Miranda her being literally royalty was the top of that list, it was strange for him.

On one hand he saw Miranda as almost a token example of what type of monster he thought of when he thought of what he wanted to protect, she goes shopping, she has friends who seem to mean a lot to her, she is kind & sweet. In a sesne everything a protector couldn’t afford to be, but would want to protect.

But;

While he hadn’t seen much of the reality of Miranda being well Princess Miranda Vanderbilt, but he had seen the egdes of that reality, in things like her well made clothes, despite mostly seeing her at vamp he had not once seen her clothes with holes or stains or turly any sign of damage, and in how easily she could offer things like seemingly endless meals without any hint that it came with a cost to herself, & in how simple it was for her to offer him a home, seemingly without strings even.

It was… Nice he guessed, that someone with those resourses cared for his sister, loved her it seemed and… Seemed to want the best for him but… Something about it did him a little nervous, the things that were too good to be true… Well, it didn’t matter, he pushed aside that feeling.

He thought for a moment about her question though unlike the many other things in his mind these were easy things to answer.

“Well, I would need space to store & practice with me close & long range weapons and… I dabble in some potion making, so… I suppose space for that would be nice.” He looked off to the side for a moment off at some place that wasn’t there, that he hadn’t been for a long time.

“…I uh, do have a odd request, if it isn’t any trouble… One of those round bird cages? I don’t have a bird but… I like their appearance, does that make sense? Uh… Preferably in my uh… bedroom? In this thoerycial house.” It was still hard to really… Let himself accept the offer, but… If Miranda really was so insistent then it was better to tell her what he wanted instead of leaving her to have to guess or worse ask Ravi.

        “I would not get quite so excited yet — it does tend to… not quite feel like a home.” That was the polite way to say what the castle was to Miranda, the particular way that it fit into her life. It was nice, for certain, that had been guaranteed by mere fact of it being the Merkingdom’s place to call their own, but nicety alone didn’t make a house a real home. The halls were too empty for that, the rooms too silent, forever holding audience for nothing but captive ghosts. It was a place that came with a list of demands all its own, designed to hold her when she resembled one thing and not the other, and it would mold her into its shape if she would not comply. 

       Sure, maybe it was comfortable, maybe it had space and creature comforts, but there was a reason Miranda considered Aaravi’s apartment with its close walls the only place that she could rightfully call home. That was where she could feel safely undressed, safely peel away all of the titles and the strappings of nobility, shed the many faces she wore and the many people she was to too many others, and to be left herself, to be left a piece simple and true that she could name as her own, Slz’Exkii and Miranda and Miri, Aaravi’s ul’kiha, breathing and alive and whole.

        But she knew she could not explain all of this to Salil, not so soon, not so easily. It was a process, a reveal backwards in time, and Miranda did not wish to go back. Yes, she was still tethered to that place, both for simple legal reasons but so too because Aaravi’s apartment still did not have the kind of plumbing that she needed to survive, had no proper bath that she could clean herself in — but again, couldn’t say that to Salil. Couldn’t make it into something understandable that she could fit onto her lips and share and be known within the same time. Quite honestly, she didn’t want Salil to know about the trappings of her castle, about the pains and the aches that came with what it demanded of her, the way it chewed up and spat out anything, anyone else. 

       Yes, this would have to do. Until some other time, until Salil saw and understood what could not be un-seen and un-understood. 

        “I could invite you over sometime, if you so wished, though. The gardens are lovely, and I have a full armory with a connected sparring grounds, if you would ever be so interested.” And maybe while they were there Miranda would tell him how her and Aaravi got together, how that same place, even with all of its flaws, was still so important to her.

        Now Miranda was properly looking down at her hands though, counting off something on her fingers that only she could translate. That was not so much a tall order, not something that she would strain very hard to fulfill, but the specifics mattered. She was fussy like that, maybe, wanting the best and being very specific in what that best looked like, but it did still mean she was trying her best and doing what she could. She wasn’t telling Salil what made her cross over her index finger with her outer thumb, nor what she was mouthing to herself as she counted off something more, only that it was evidently something important, so it was better to leave her to it.

       “I could certainly account for that, yes. I would have to get back into contact with them and then see what their orders currently resemble but I believe—” She continued in muttering under her breath, speaking in her first language, able to make it stick once sound and words were applied to her thought. The complex finger-notes continued, now just with Miranda lifting her head up to the sky in absentminded thought. “Give me a few days? I would have to rule some options out myself, but it should not be too much of an issue! I could also issue a request to Camp Rival Camp to permit you a few days leave of absence, just to ensure that you have the time needed to settle in and get acquainted with everything. Since, well… It should be somewhat of a distance away, being nearer to the city and such than here.”

[chaosmultiverse]

Salil could feel that she was looking there, he was... Keenly aware of it & of the attention it tended to bring, still... He couldn't see any expression on her face that was out of place so unless she had been sneering at him the whole time he had known her, they probably weren't judging.

Salil nodded, how... He supposed it wasn't something he needed to know, though... He had to wonder if his father simply hadn't thought to mention details about the people Aaravi spent time with or... If he didn't know, he had given Salil some maps a long time ago now of that school, in case that in a panic he needed to try to retrieve Aaravi but... It must not have had that much of the surrounding area.

"That... Sounds like a beautiful place to have a home, I can't imagine what it'd be like to have a whole castle somewhere like like that." He commented, admittedly outside of the long list of stuff related to Ravi that made it... Odd for Salil when he talked to Miranda her being literally royalty was the top of that list, it was strange for him.

On one hand he saw Miranda as almost a token example of what type of monster he thought of when he thought of what he wanted to protect, she goes shopping, she has friends who seem to mean a lot to her, she is kind & sweet. In a sesne everything a protector couldn't afford to be, but would want to protect.

But;

While he hadn't seen much of the reality of Miranda being well Princess Miranda Vanderbilt, but he had seen the egdes of that reality, in things like her well made clothes, despite mostly seeing her at vamp he had not once seen her clothes with holes or stains or turly any sign of damage, and in how easily she could offer things like seemingly endless meals without any hint that it came with a cost to herself, & in how simple it was for her to offer him a home, seemingly without strings even.

It was... Nice he guessed, that someone with those resourses cared for his sister, loved her it seemed and... Seemed to want the best for him but... Something about it did him a little nervous, the things that were too good to be true... Well, it didn't matter, he pushed aside that feeling.

He thought for a moment about her question though unlike the many other things in his mind these were easy things to answer.

"Well, I would need space to store & practice with me close & long range weapons and... I dabble in some potion making, so... I suppose space for that would be nice." He looked off to the side for a moment off at some place that wasn't there, that he hadn't been for a long time.

"...I uh, do have a odd request, if it isn't any trouble... One of those round bird cages? I don't have a bird but... I like their appearance, does that make sense? Uh... Preferably in my uh... bedroom? In this thoerycial house." It was still hard to really... Let himself accept the offer, but... If Miranda really was so insistent then it was better to tell her what he wanted instead of leaving her to have to guess or worse ask Ravi.

{ chaosmultiverse​ }

Salil wanted to provide some counter argument to what she said, to her brush off but… he couldn’t think of anything, logically it did make sense to start with him if she did turly consider his housing unacceptable.

It didn’t help that it seemed for her this wasn’t any sort of issue or weight or… Anything, it made trying to reject the offer feel much less… Noble.

“I- I mean I’ve always lived within forests or rural areas, I- I would hardly fit in within a urban environment.” Salil crossed his arms, meanwhile his wing starched a little, it’s feathers fluffing out for a moment as the unlying bones flayed out so for a moment his wing was out instead of folded on itself like a handfan.

“…And I mean, I already have my cabin so I won’t really need anything too close to camp, really I just don’t have anywhere to rest my head near city centers or near your too’s school.” He couldn’t admit that he did want to take her offer nor could he reject it, at least not without being extremely rude to someone who had been nothing but kind, so… He’d just narrow down what he wanted & hope she’d pick up on it.

      The wing distracts Miranda, just for a moment. The splay of it catches her eye, the way the light sits atop each feather as it shifts and unfolds, so much like a silk fan with all of its many rays. They shimmer, like an oil slick spreading out over the top of waves, unruffled by the tossing and turning of the tides beneath. 

       Yet, so too does it remind Miranda of something far closer to home as well, makes her think of the fins that sit on either side of her very own face. There is something canny in them both, she thinks, distracted as she is, staring more openly at the wing than perhaps ever before. She wants to touch it, to reach out and to run her fingers along its surface, but contained herself and didn’t, improper as it would have been to do so, mortifying to the princess still.

      And yet it has such a similar structure, such a familiarity to Miranda and to her eyes that she can’t understand how she missed it before. Maybe she was just distracted? With everything else at play, with all the other things on her mind, it seems right that she could have missed it, that she did not realize what, persay, she was really looking at. Deep inspections and true looking require time and require thought both, after all.

      She tries to look away, tries to cover up her pause and the glint of awe that came over her eyes, returning her gaze back down to her claws and the topic at hand.

      “I believe I should have something like that within easy reach, then — that is not too dissimilar to my castle at the time being, after all! You have not seen it, but my kingdom needed to place me close to the school and within easy access to the city, and yet could not spare any risk of myself potentially being overseen… So it is a little off of the beaten track, within one of the big pine forests near the coast. It even sits right upon the cliff. 

       Any other specific amenities? I have a broad assortment I’ll be sure to include regardless, but if there’s anything in mind you would particularly like to ensure, I can likewise arrange for that as well! For instance, one of my friends who I helped likewise before wished for a greenhouse!”

      Or, well, she was sure Calculester would have requested a greenhouse, if she had actually asked them prior. Regardless, considering how much they liked it, she was sure she made a good call there.

[chaosmultiverse]

Salil wanted to provide some counter argument to what she said, to her brush off but... he couldn't think of anything, logically it did make sense to start with him if she did turly consider his housing unacceptable.

It didn't help that it seemed for her this wasn't any sort of issue or weight or... Anything, it made trying to reject the offer feel much less... Noble.

"I- I mean I've always lived within forests or rural areas, I- I would hardly fit in within a urban environment." Salil crossed his arms, meanwhile his wing starched a little, it's feathers fluffing out for a moment as the unlying bones flayed out so for a moment his wing was out instead of folded on itself like a handfan.

"...And I mean, I already have my cabin so I won't really need anything too close to camp, really I just don't have anywhere to rest my head near city centers or near your too's school." He couldn't admit that he did want to take her offer nor could he reject it, at least not without being extremely rude to someone who had been nothing but kind, so... He'd just narrow down what he wanted & hope she'd pick up on it.

@chaosmultiverse​ || Continued from here.

      “Then I shall obtain housing for them as well, but as you are here now and here first, then I see it is only reasonable to begin with you.” Miranda made some dismissive gesture with her hand, flicking it in the air as though to chase any buzzing doubts away. 

      Though, as much as it took Salil through a loop, it didn’t seem as though Miranda was sharing the same sentiment. There was no unusual expression on her face, just a curious tilt of her head, a flicker of her fins in thought. It was more some kind of expression of stubbornness itself, a sticking conviction that Miranda wasn’t about to just abandon, even if she had already been turned down before. That made sense, in a way. Anyone in her position would still want to ensure that her family, her new family that felt… more natural, than her first ever had to her, easier for her to sink down into and pull the covers up to her chin and to settle down into a new, accepted norm — that they would surely have all of their needs met and to be set. Miranda had the means to do so, and she could even ensure that they would be set for life, and… who wouldn’t? It was natural, to want to help, to be so desperate to do anything to help.

      The sticking issue, however, was that what Miranda was talking about didn’t reflect right. She was taking this seriously, yes, but not seriously enough. Her tone, her words, the easy promises that came — if Salil was trying to give this weight, to make this decision mean something, then it was wasted. She wasn’t talking like she was speaking of a house. She was talking as if she was speaking of spare change, of picking up a snack while she was already out and about, as if it was something that was baffling to even consider the thought that Salil might even owe her something back.

      “I imagine you would want something close to the camp then, yes? Or not, you may wish to have a more proper, independent place of operations… Rural or urban, whichever would you prefer? I can also consider and accommodate for anything specific you would like to request, it is really no issue. What of architectural styles?”