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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR: A syrup filled wedding (WIP)

Tsisi is Ritidia’s best friend, she shows up in chapter 6, but has a cameo as the subject of Ritidia’s portraits in ch 3. She’s legally blind, since as a child she tried to fix her bad vision with magic, and screwed up because she of course had no idea how an eye actually works. Ansi is her girlfriend, an omen as bad as they get - poor, blonde and pale: one foot in the grave from birth, according to Tagor superstitions.

Money was not spared in Tsisi’s wedding. The whole church from tower peak to floor cracks was covered in colorful ribbons, lace and flowers. Likewise, the grounds were filled buffet tables and comfy chairs. Tsisi’s dress had cost at least three hundred times that of her bride’s, pure silk the whole ankle-length churchbell-shaped creation with its ground-sweeping veil of the finest chiffon ever created by man, hair stuffed with gems, neck, wrists and ankles adorned with her weight in gold… She would die of shame if she could see herself. She had only agreed to this much because she thought the dress was satin and the veil cotton, and the jewellery all second hand. Her family had their hearts in the right place, but I thought it was still a little mean to keep her in the dark. This would not have flown had Tsisi been able to see.

Her family was shamefully rich, and they did like to flaunt it, but it was hard to imagine this party wouldn’t drive them to bankruptcy and millions into debt. Ansi’s guests were indescribably impressed, and some were planning to swipe whatever they could, clear as day. I knew her family was dirt poor and all my sympathies lay with them, but I still wished they wouldn’t ruin the wedding with stealing. After the wedding would be fine, but from the looks of one of her uncles something would drop in his bag as soon as he could concentrate enough to avert most eyes. I could already feel the itch to write him off as an unimportant sight, because I had no magic to shield myself from his. A few others were more discreet with their magic, it took me a while to realize I wasn’t staring at the decorations because I thought they were so pretty. I was glad no one else seemed to have noticed what was going on. Ansi for sure would have raised hell. If she could remember how. The woman in question had frozen in place in her conspicuously cheap dress. She stared at her future wife like a dried out wandered in the desert would stare at an angel offering water. She completely forgot to take her hand to lead her inside, but luckily Tsisi stayed level-headed enough to remind her of the etiquette. And here I had thought she would be the one to forget every custom she stepped in front of her bride. They stepped inside the church encouraged by loud applause and tearful cheers. When I had asked why the vows were made in private, Ritidia explained it was because they were made for Rini and Kete, the gods of marriage, and not other humans. A nice thought, and I supposed it made sense, but it felt odd. Wasn’t the main part of a wedding the ceremony? And the guests wouldn’t even see it? They just waited outside, stuffing their faces with food? However it was done, it hadn’t gone well. There was the Tsisi I knew, wailing away with a snotty nose! Her fresh from the oven wife, her family, Ritidia and the priest all tried their best to calm down the bawling lady. It turned out she was bummed out because even when she had most wanted it and practised beforehand, her magic still hadn’t been able to fix her vision enough to let her see her fiancée. ”The most important day of our lives, when you’re at your most beautiful, and still all I can see is a pale blob!” she cried. “I wanted to commit you to my memory, at your most captivating, to hold in my heart forever...” Ugh, she was so sappy. Classic Tsisi. “You’re a flower who is a thousand times more beautiful than I. Don’t mind it, I’m live in your heart, not in your eyes.” Ugh, and even more classic Ansi. I slipped away from the sugary flirting, but to my misfortune drifted into the company of the even more unpleasant Adhi. Ritidia was busy hugging all her friends, the happy couple was surrounded by family, the two clans were for once at peace, some nightingale burst into song in the nearby birch. If you didn’t count Tsisi’s blubbering, everything was perfectly picturesque. I figured that I was probably just jealous, and should stop being a Debbie Downer this once. I steeled myself to withstand the happy couple’s disgustingly sweet chirpings and went to congratulate them. They were both positively glowing with happiness. Tsisi’s eyes shone like stars when she looked at her wife – if you asked her, her beloved was the loveliest being in creation, that she knew even without seeing it. The foolish, sweet nothings of a woman in love, but there was some truth in it – Ansi was who she had chosen, out of all those after her hand. Ansi, who was poor, who she had had to wait for several years, so she had to see something extraordinary in the young girl.

#VRbutnotlikethat #WIP scene #Mimi #Tsisi #Ansi #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR: A Wartime Peace (WIP)

This scene takes place after Mimi has acted as the ambassador fot he kini people for maybe a year(she’s around 20 years old). She still doesn’t quite understand the people she supposedly represents.

I found my sister in the green meeting room, head in hands. I sat down next to her. ”The farms have been attacked again”, she sighed. ”I was expecting it, to be honest.” ”What was done to them?” I ask, offering my hand, meaning to take the report from her to read it myself. I knew she blamed herself, even though she was no longer responsible for kini affairs. She took every setback with them hard. She started reading from the paper, biting back tears. ”In two the family and some livestock were escaped but the buildings were burned down, in two all animals and the whole family were killed and the fields burned, in one all the animals killed, the fields turned into a lake, the buildings destroyed and the whole – the whole family killed, cut into pieces and spread on the grounds.”

For a while I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth. What? How could that be? It was impossible! ”That has to be an exaggeration, someone wants to frame them!” The report had to be written by some anti-kini arsehole! Someone wanted to look bad, no, horrible, to justify some new law that would finally allow humans to kill kinis! That report was nothing but lies all the way through! Once I went to the scene everything would be settled, the whole thing would be revealed as the frame job it was! ”I’m going there to set this straight!” I declared and got up. Ritidia grabbed my arm before I got out the door, eyes tired and wet. ”It’s best to wait a few days, the kinis are still agitated.” ”But -” I started, and quieted. I didn’t know how to continue. It was true that the kinis could get a little aggressive, but not like this. How could anyone believe they would do something like this? I sat back down, numb with despair. How was I going to continue my job? The people already disliked me, and they believed any hateful lie told about the kinis. I could show them as much evidence to the contrary as I wanted, they would never side with me. Not even Ritidia. I thought of Jotiri. His family lived in one of the farms nearest to the forest. ”Does the report tell the victims’ names?” Ritidia handed me the lying paper. Survivors: Afra, Aulu, Takaho, Denasi, Geauda, Kera, Jessi, Umin, and Nemin. Wounded: Aejon and Riio. Dead: Adi, Piikon, Bellekrig, Daslej, Sessan, Sukara, Teriminka, Karmin, Kaoratsil, Hana, Heiratsil, Hitagi, Nef, Ubume, and Ruimin. Oh, Jotiri… How could I ever tell him? How could I ever ask him to take me to the border again? His whole family… Where was he? I knew he was at the palace, because I was meant to have a meeting with Joyjaa in the afternoon. The report had come in later than him. ”Find Jotiri for me”, I pleaded Ritidia. She found him Kika’s room. He had already been told. He was crying against Famfara’s chest. Ritidia must have told her, and as his friend, she had broken the news and offered a shoulder. Jotiri didn’t even acknowledge me, and Famfara waved me to leave. She was right, I was the last person he wanted to see right then. Once he recovered, he would likely resign. In his eyes, I had caused the tragedy because I didn’t keep the kinis in a tight iron leash. He would hit me just for suggesting that maybe something about the report wasn’t the gospel truth.

I was right. Jotiri handed in his letter of resignation the same evening. The next day I borrowed Kitiri from Kinati, and declared I would go to the forest. Ritidia saw I wouldn’t back down no matter how many warnings she threw my way, and called Famfara so they could both accompany and shield me. On the way she called for Joyjaa, who never let her know whether he would be seeing us or not. We first toured the farms, which to my disbelief had been thrashed just the way the report had said. All the bodies had been cleared away, but little had been done about the blood. When we got to the forest’s edge, I felt sick enough to throw up, but also furious. Even if the report had been exaggerated, most of it was true – 15 dead! Joyjaa was already waiting for us, leaning casually against a tree with a bored expression, braiding his hair. Ritidia spoke to him a freezingly polite tone and round-about words. ”Our greeting. We are the first tunasa Rititia and her entourage, second tunasa Ritidia, and our bodyguards. We humbly ask for audience with the ruler of the kini people.” ”Here he is, I suppose. What are the ladies after?” Kitiri gasped at the informal language directed at the royal family, but Famfara quietly reminded her to stay calm. ”The farms near the border of the forest were attacked the previous night. Livestock and buildings have been laid to waste, and humans have been killed. We have come to investigate the matter.” Joyjaa rolled his eyes at the formal wording. ”So go ahead.” ”We have investigated the farms that were attacked and interviewed some of the survivors, and would like to know whether a member of the kini people might have heard about, or witnessed, some of the events of that night, and if so, would like to speak with them to assure an impartial evaluation of the matter.” ”I did. Whatever you’ve heard about it is probably true.” I stood there stunned in silence, and even Ritidia didn’t know how to react to such a blunt confession of mass murder. Joyjaa dug dirt from under his fingernails, utterly unaffected by everything. ”...would you mind elaborating?” I finally asked, hoping in vain to hear something to wake me from this nightmare. ”On that particular night in question a most dreadful event took place-” Joyjaa said, mocking Ritidia’s formal speech, ”-where one of the farmers was about to blow out Klovi’s brain. We answered to the fire. The border was not crossed, so you skip along home now.” ”Skip along – you just confessed to 15 murders! We can’t exactly let that be!” ”The border was not crossed, so you can. The treaty wasn’t violated.” ”15 murders!” I repeated to the maniac. ”How is that not a violation of the treaty?!” ”Looks like the ambassador isn’t up on her duties. The treaty only says that no one is allowed to cross the border, nothing else. So it was not violated.” Helpless, I looked to Ritidia, who nodded her head in shame. ”Everything else is unspoken rules. In theory, nothing stops anyone from killing anyone.” This could not be true. This was the stupidest, least thought out, rushed, unfair and generally the worst treaty in the history of the multiverse! What kind of treaty doesn’t forbid mass murder? Once I died, I would search out the makers of this so called treaty in the afterlife and personally strangle them to second death with my bare hands! I’d borrow a cannon from the army and – wait, there was a thought. The kinis didn’t have firearms, so they had to get up close and personal to kill. ”You burned four farms to the ground, pray tell me how you managed that without setting foot outside the forest?” Ha! Squirm your way out of this one, Joyjaa! That would prove they had crossed the border and we could bring them to court! But… he only scoffed and pointed to the closest half-standing barn, half a kilometre away down the distant slope, which spontaneously caught on fire. The he did the same to our buggy. Our conversation ended there.

Later Ritidia explained that the treaty had been prepared in extreme hurry and it really did only say that no kini or human was allowed to cross the edge of the forest. These murder sprees happened with regrettable frequency, which wasn’t saying much because in my opinion any frequency was regrettable! The humans couldn’t touch the murderers because the kinis’ strong magic allowed them to hit from afar, so they never needed to cross the border when they felt like payback was in order. That was why most of the farms were deserted, and the government had resorted to paying a substantial compensation as incentive to populate one of the most fertile territories in the country.

The kini forest is technically its own state, which is why Tagor laws don’t cross its borders. The kini have no rights or duties to Tagor, but every now and then someone tries to sue them for serious crimes to get a legal execution. Of course it never works, because as long as the kini doesn’t cross the border, anything they do is beyond the law enforcment’s reach.

#VRbutnotlikethat #WIP scene #Mimi #Ritidia #Joyjaa #Jotiri #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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Masterpost

As befitting the WIP theme of my blog, I have a ton of WIP “artwork” sitting on my computer. I was never that good, and now that I’m out of practice I suck even more than I used to:D I’d still like to do a few character sketches to use for profiles, now that I’m back from my exhange studies and have actual pencils and paper available. Anyway, here’s a few gods from the state religion of Tagor, gotsat...ism? What would be a good name for it? I dunno.

At the top we have main deity Alimagotsat, or Gotsat, the god of the sky and the world. Her body forms the boundaries of the universe, and houses everything that exists in it - galaxies, other gods... She was created by the creator gods Rahana and Amame, who moved onto other projects after creating the first gods. Gotsat is often referred to as the Great Parent(due to Tagor lacking social gender, Great Mother has a more correct connotation) and as such is usually depicted with a visible rack, because titties are for babies:D She acts as a parental figure for many of the other gods. Her dress changes color according to the time of the day, and of course has stars on it during the night. This drawing is based on an older version of her, where her hands can still be seen - currently they are always hidden under long, wide sleeves, because no one can see the edge of the universe. lol at my fail at symbolism:D Her skin and hair are paper white. Hanging from Gotsat’s arms is Malisale, the god of trees and forests. In the capital, Tir, she’ depicted as an antisocial introvert who furiously and vengefully protects what’s hers, a trait she passed onto the territorial kini people living in her dominion. In the rest of Tagor, she’s a shy little sister type, who looks up to Gotsat and strives to become her equal, but is still very attached to her other siblings, especially Bellekrig. She’s rarely depicted clothed, and has dark brown skin, with dark green hair and eyes. Bellekrig, the god of land, is quite small and lives in the hair of her sister Klipikt. Tagor’s planet is about 90% ocean, and land is mostly in small islands. She’s usually seen as a very easy-going god who doesn’t worry about much anything, and is very close with Malisale and Klipikt. She has tanned skin, with brown hair, usually curly, and brown eyes. And finally we have Klipikt, the god of seas. She originates from a religion older than gotsatism, and her name also stems from a language other than Tagor, which is why it’s so odd - a more Tagor name would be Kipit or Lipik. Like many gods of seas, she’s also very capricious and can change moods in an instant. She’s strict but motherly, quick to anger and forgive, unpredictable but fair. She treats Bellekrig as her daughter. Like Malisale, she’s usually depicted naked, and her mermaid dress is really a betta fish -like tail. Her skin is light green turning a deep blue in the tail, and her hair is different shades of dark green. Her eyes are often also green, but dark grey and blue are also common.

#VRbutnotlikethat #illustrations #wiptale

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR: What do you look like? (WIP)

Masterpost Mimi’s first time seeing Marsohu’s “human” form. This scene is kind of old, and I’m not that happy with it, especially the translated version(original was in Finnish). First written when Joyjaa’s character initially appeared much nicer than he does in newest version, I had to update some things, and I used expressions that are hard to translate into English... So the language is even more flat than it is in Finnish. (Italics are words spoken in English, because Mimi doesn’t know the Tagor equivalent)(Hoki is the name of the animal that resembles hyenas)

Joyjaa used his human form more often than his hyena form. Maybe he felt more human than kini. Maybe he just didn’t get along with his kini mother. How should I know. And frankly, he interested me less and less each passing minute. I hadn’t liked him from day one, and since then he had only proven the first impression had been correct – he was an arsehole who enjoyed attention far too much and talked about nothing as much as he did about himself. He pretended to be jovial and social, when in reality he was neither. I doubted he even remembered my name despite being the one to demand I take the job.

Marsohu on the other hand. He was always quiet, always observing. He listened keenly and thought constantly, green eyes burning and claws scratched the ground distractedly.”We don’t have forests like you anymore”, I continued my story. ”Most of the land is… is… All the land is inhabited. Forests are felled from… humans build on forests.” ”No forests anywhere? The whole planet has been felled clean?” ”No, not clean, but most forests are… farmed. Plant… planted. Not wild.” Damn, some words were so hard. I was getting better at using the past tense, but when I had to think up some rare expression I almost always forgot to apply the correct tense. ”The trees are young and there are few animals. In places far away from my home there are still… uhh… we call them jungle, or rainforest. They’re different than this. They’re… wet. Different trees. More bugs.” I glanced at Marsohu. He was listening with strained ears, but immediately turned to look away as if he wasn’t the least bit interested. His tail twitched impatiently. I didn’t try too hard to suppress the snort, and Joyjaa smirked and said something to him. He acted deaf. ”Rainforests also most felled.” And that, ladies and gentleman, is how you got his attention back. So impossibly curious but too childishly proud to admit it. He really was like a housecat. ”What are the cities like?” Joyjaa asked just for the sake of hearing his own voice again, after all he hadn’t spoken in ten full seconds! ”There are different kinds. The name of my city is Sheffield. It’s much larger than Tir, and… more… dense? London is bigger, some are smaller. Some cities are… attached? Attached to each other. Much humans, few animals. No kinis.” ”Of course not! Kinis are only found here. Some have moved on the other side of the mountains. I’ve thought about it, too.” No, he hadn’t, there would be no one to listen to his bull crap and self-praise. ”We have a story like kinis. Werewolf is a human who turns into a wolf. A wolf is – many animals together? Lives in a group?” ”Ibosu?” ”Could be. I don’t know the word in Tagorese. A wolf is an ibosu.”Again I turned quickly from Joyjaa to Marsohu. Before I had even stopped the motion he was already staring away is if bored. So childish. From Joyjaa’s stories I had figured they were more or less the same age, but it was hard to believe when faced with acts like this. ”Marsohu, how old are you?” ”A little younger than me”, Joyjaa told. ”What do you look like as human? You’re always hoki, don’t you like be as human?” ”Don’t you like being human?” Joyjaa corrected snidely, all pretense of friendliness gone from his voice. Guess that meant he hated humans just as much as Marsohu did, but didn’t explain why he still preferred the human form. ”And this form isn’t human, either, it’s still kini.” ”It looks human.” ”And you look smart”, he answered with a condescending smile. I could hear Jotiri adjusting his stance behind me, presumably wanting to wipe the smirk off his smug face. He hated Joyjaa even more than I did, and he wasn’t even obligated to kiss up to him. And then the dickhead did that face that never predicted anything good. Conceited smirk and narrowed eyes. Had I dared, I’d have hit him. With something heavy and sharp. Never had I seen anyone with a face as infuriating as him. ”Well, brother dear, why don’t you show her highness your human form?” Marsohu looked at him with suspicion. He knew his brother’s expressions, but not his thoughts. He also knew that if you resist him, he can just make you want to do whatever he’s after. With a deep sigh he submitted again, and I really felt for him. I only had to tolerate Joyjaa maybe an hour at a time, but the poor boy was shackled to his flesh and blood. The transformation was just as confusing each time. I could look as hard as I could but the cloudiness always seemed to form in my own eyes instead of around the kini, and each time I had to rub my eyes because I was convinced I was going blind. And each time I opened them again there was just something else instead of a hyena standing in front of me. This time it was a black-haired man. An even taller than Joyjaa, with a slender build, emerald-eyed, beautiful, black-haired man. His amazingly bright eyes looked at me bothered, they hit me straight in the heart like lightning. The choppy, messy black strands fell like silk on his shoulders. His slim face and narrow shoulders made him look more feminine than his brother. He wore a dark green tunic and black shorts, which showed off his long legs and wide paws, covered with glistening black fur. His arms were also fuzzy, but the hands were hairless. His ears were turned back in annoyance and he turned his gaze to the forest. I was struck speechless. I hadn’t expected him to look like this. I thought he’d look more like Joyjaa, with similar dickish expressions. A bit chubby, maybe freckled. But instead he was so pretty and embarrassed. The two brothers were nothing alike, you couldn’t have mistaken them for family even if they said so. Suddenly it became difficult to breathe. I noticed Joyjaa glaring at me with the most hostile look, and jerked. It looked like only noticed it himself then, because for a moment he looked confused and I could breathe again. After he collected himself, he plastered that stupid smile back on his face. ”Well, how do you like it?” he cooed coyly. I blushed and lightly cleared my throat. I didn’t have the courage to answer honestly, not after he force-strangled me. I didn’t know what kind of answer he was after. ”I… Well… It’s different from what I expected” sounded like a suitably neutral answer, and it did spare me a second choking, so I continued. ” You two look much different. Very! Very different.” That still wasn’t the opinion he had wanted to hear, as he turned hostile again. But at least it was light hostility, it had no physical effects. ”We’re cousins, not twins”, he shot back with a what-are-you-an-idiot-tone. Excuse me, since when were they cousins and not brothers? Better still to just go with whatever he said. ”Of course, I just… I don’t know. Expected something different.” Marsohu’s tail started whipping, so I rushed to explain lest I get two enraged kinis cursing me. ”I don’t mean bad, I like it actually -” He waved his hand to make me shut up, and with a light blush turned to glare daggers at his brother. Cousin? Joyjaa looked back just as furious. They stayed like this for a fair while, both equally silent. Joyjaa loved speaking out loud, so this spoke volumes of how private he wanted this argument to be. I used the opportiny to compare the two further. Marsohu’s nose was more flat and upturned, his ears a little smaller and more triangular than Joyjaa’s soft squares, his skin a tad darker, the fur thicker and much shorter, but covering his thighs completely. Joyjaa, for once telling the truth about something, was a little older – he looked roughly 25, while Marsohu was around 22. Joyjaa had enough of the row and turned back to me smiling. ”You are wanted at home”, he told to me oddly sweetly, hardly a trace of malice in voice. Marsohu transformed back into a hyena and stalked off, disappearing from view in seconds. Joyjaa threw a poisonous glare after him and walked in another direction, without even saying bye. ”Their manners get worse every time you visit here”, Jotiri grumbled as we climbed in the buggy.

#VRbutnotlikethat #WIP scene #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction #Mimi #Marsohu #Joyjaa #Jotiri

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR: Uncooked meat and peace treaties

Masterpost

Here we get a bit of insight to the kini mind. They really aren’t human despite what Mimi likes to think. The scene takes place about 2 years after Mimi lands in Tagor, and somewhere around a year after she’s granted the ceremonial title of gon’ga, something like an ambassador. The border they keep referring to is the border between Tir countryside and the forest the kinis live in. It’s there to keep the humans from logging the forest and the kinis from killing humans.

”...aren’t you going to cook it?” Marsohu started chewing the bird and only looked at me puzzled. Guess that answered that question. ”...you’ll get worms.” Worms? ”Uncooked meat has all kinds of of… uhh… I don’t know the word… bacteria and parasites, you know, tiny animals taht cause diseases.” He peeks in the bird’s severed neck to see these tiny animals.

”You can’t see them, they’re too small.” He doesn’t believe anything that small can do anything. And just kept on munching on his bird. Unfathomably disgusting. No wonder his breath stank like the end of days. All the kini probably died in their thirties. Marsohu was fast approaching the end of his life. ”How old are you?” He’s young. ”I mean how many years. I’m 18.” He doesn’t understand what a ”year” is. ”Well, umm… If you were born two years ago, you’d be two years old. When were you born?” He doesn’t know. He was born when he was born. Wow. His mother had a head full of air. Maybe she had caught a brain disease from uncooked meat. ”What about Joyjaa?” He’s an adult. ”So… 18?” Adult. Try and make sense of that. Joyjaa was so not 18, maybe 26. Marsohu looked a little younger than his cousin, around 22 or so. I would probably have to ask Joyjaa, maybe I could get an actual answer out of him. And out loud. Telepathy still felt odd, and if I didn’t know to expect it, it was difficult to tell what where my own thought and what was being sent from the outside. The bird’s bones cracked in Marsohu’s mouth. I couldn’t suppress the shudder. He noticed, but thought it meant I wanted his leftovers. ”No thanks!” I squeeked and instantly leaned backwards from the bloody bundle being shoved into my face. ”Frankly, I can’t wrap my head around how you aren’t all dead with your diet”, I muttered in English. Marsohu’s ears swiveled towards me, he liked English more than Tagor. I guess he heard it more often. Or I mean, of course he heard it more often, these days even I only used English when I didn’t know the Tagor word. Sometimes simply because Marsohu liked it. Those times he paid more attention to me than usually. He avoided looking me in the eye, but then again, that is a sign of aggression in the animal kingdom. He used to look me directly in the eyes the first times we met. Back then he hadn’t liked me even though he had been curious. He’d been trying to scare me. I wonder if he had been confused when I had stared right back? What else did they do the opposite way to humans? ”Hey, Marsohu, what kind of houses do you live in?” They don’t have houses. ”So, you live in…. nests, dig a small hole in the ground?” Yes. But closer to the mountains there’s an old village , abandoned, with houses. ”A village? Did humans used to live here?” Humans have never lived in the forest. Kinis built it, a long time ago. Some of the houses still stand. ”Why was it abandoned?” He doesn’t know. Well of course. He barely knows anything. Maybe the kinis had tried to copy humans, try out their lifestyle, but it hadn’t suited them. Marsohu would like to show me the village, but it’s not a good idea. Humans aren’t welcome in the forest. ”But I’m already in the forest”, I pointed out. Well, I was metre in the forest, but that still counted. The border was unconditional. Not even Ritidia was allowed a toe over the line. And even that is too much. I had only gotten so far because I had proven myself to be submissive and respectful, I was absolutely harmless. ”Absolutely?!” I protested. Yeah, it was true that I was weak, slow, light, small, ignorant and without a spark of magic, but he didn’t need to put it like that! ”I do have some authority! I am a princess after all!” The only one around here gives a damn about the ”authority” of humans is Joyjaa, who doesn’t respect it all. Jotiri was peeking in b etween the trees with a concerned look. He believed me one I said everything was fine, but almost looked disappointed about it. He really had a bone to pick with the kinis, and all they did was live in the vicinity of his family, who by the way had moved there only three years ago. It was embarrassing that I was never let anywhere alone. Marsohu had long since showed he much preferred me alive, and didn’t even twitch his ear at Jotiri’s direction. That if anything proved that he didn’t consider Jotiri a threat. I had been to the forest dozens of times, and had yet to witness a single scuffle. If you asked me, I’d say the stories about the superiority of kinis were mostly tall tales, and the humans had just grown up believing them without scrutiny. ”Would you beat Jotiri in a fight?” Yes. He hadn’t hesitated a millisecond. ”I don’t know… He’s pretty good.” Famfara was demonstrably even better, but even she did her best to look humble and non-threatening around the kinis. ”He might put up a surprisingly good fight.” The border is unconditional. ”Well give him a special permission this once, like me.” The border is unconditional. ”You bore!” I stuck out my tongue at him, but the message missed him completely. ”How can it be unconditional if I’m here?” The border is only for humans and kinis. I’m something else. ”I was human the last time I looked in a mirror.” Marsohu looked at me for a long time with an appraising look. He avoided my eyes, of course. I liked his eyes, they were such a brilliant color and since they were so big, you could see it so clearly. But I didn’t want to offend him, so I kept my thoughts to myself. He barked a laugh. ”What?” Without answering he changed to his hyena form and started climbing up the nearest tree, wanting me to follow. I was never the climbing type, and the thick, branchless trunk of this tree made it really difficult. I went slower than a snail, and finally he got tired of watching me suffer and offered a hand. The human hand extending from the arm of a hyena looked just bizarre. He lifted me up to the first branch, after which things got way easier. I steadfastly kept my eyes upwards, refusing to even think about coming down before it was time. We climbed and climbed, almost to the top. The tree was incredibly tall, standing at least two metres taller than all the others around. The view was amazing. Harvest season was nearly there so all the fields flashed golden in the wind, behind the snow capped mountains starts were already forming, and far, far in the distance, the sea burned bright as fire in the sunset. I hadn’t even noticed it was getting that late. All the colours were just breathtaking, the black sky blending into indigo, the sun dyeing the clouds a deep purple, above the ocean pink and orange. I’m not like a human. ”On what grounds?” A human builds. Doesn’t see the sun, doesn’t see the ocean. Marsohu gestured towards the town, on my left, with his muzzle. I tried to see it, but from this far away I could only see a colorful spot. ”We need a home, too”, I reminded. ”Humans can’t survive in a simple cave, eating raw meat.” Again he looked at me long. Maybe like a human after all. ”There’s nothing wrong about that”, I argued, but Marsohu could be stupidly stubborn and selfish. He simply would not understand that his lifestyle wasn’t for everyone. I looked at the ocean again. You couldn’t see it from the town because there was a slight upwards slope all along the coastline. There were no beaches in Tagor, only cliffs. I wasn’t a beach type of person, but it would have been nice to go watch the sunset sometime. Tir was pretty far from the coast, but I was sure I could take two days off sometime in the future. I would probably need to leave early in the afternoon to make it in time. My work wasn’t viewed as important, anyway, unfortunately no one would care. Not even the kini, I suspected. I was just a novelty for Marsohu and Joyjaa. I turned to say something to him, I wasn’t even sure what, but he had changed back to human and was watching me with a gentle look. I smiled weakly and turned back. We stayed quiet until the sun sunk behind the ocean and Jotiri started calling for me. Time to go. Had been for hours. ”Coming!” My descent was, if possible, even slower than my climbing. I didn’t dare to take a proper look so it took ages to feel around for proper footing. Marsohu laughed at my pathetic display while skipping with ease from brach to branch, and thought I was a positively sorry sight, even more pitiful than his youngest sister. I was so pissed at him I didn’t even ask why he used his human form so rarely on the ground – evidently his ”problems with balance” were utter horse shit. After what felt like an hour I made it to the lowest branch. I considered jumping down, but despite being the lowest, it was still at least four metres up. I couldn’t get a proper grip on the trunk, so sliding down it was out of the question. I didn’t see any other options, though. Marsohu of course smirked at me from the ground. He just loved humiliating me. Jump, he’ll catch. ”For sure?” He nodded and lifted his arms. I dropped down to dangle from the branch, again made sure that he would be there because I would have to punch him if he was messing with me. I let go.

That bitch -- Wheeeeew, the fall had felt so long I was sure he had pranked me. He set me down, and once again I was reminded of how freakishly tall he was. It was so easy to forget since he favored his hyena form so much and usually sat when in human form, but he was a full two metres of bean pole goodness. How he hadn’t fallen over with my weight I had no clue. I hurried over to the concerned Jotiri and waved by to Marsohu. He had changed back to hyena again, only his eyes shining in the middle of the blackness of the forest. ”See you later!” I hollered and closed the door the buggy. Jotiri worked hard to break the speed limit, and didn’t slow down until we were halfway to town. ”With all due respect, but I think it’s a bad idea to ’see him later’, princess”, he said, uneasy. He was only bodyguard, he was expected to stay out of politics, but his feelings about this particular subject were far too strong to ignore. ”I’m the ambassador, I have to keep up the relations”, I reminded. What kind of ambassador just sits at home twiddling her thumbs? Not my kind of ambassador. I wasn’t content to let this terrible canyon stay between our people. ”It wasn’t meant to be literal, it was just to appease them”, he claimed. He was concerned about me, everyone was. No one trusted the kinis. The ambassador was supposed to just be a half-baked peace offering – but damn if I wasn’t trying my hardest to ruin that. ”They’ve been restless again, despite Ritidia”, he continued with a dark look. ”My family lives near the border -” I already knew that, he mentioned it like once a week - ” I fear for them just as I fear for you. The border in unconditional, I can do nothing to help when you cross it. The kinis stay in the forest just because they know we can do nothing.” With a very serious look he tried to make understand. ”If they kill you in the forest, I can do nothing to stop them. I can’t avenge your death. I can only be your bodyguard on Tagor’s side.” ”Your job is to protect me, you can cross the border if -” ”The border is unconditional, Rititia -” ”Mimi. The border is only unconditional because we’re at war. The sooner I can get a treaty the sooner it will open. We have to show that we’re willing to make peace. I’m already allowed in the forest – how’s that for unconditional? If I can continue like this, I can get us a better treaty.” He looked skeptical, but at least he didn’t argue again. Both sides in this prolonged war were self-destructively bullheaded! I doubted either one wanted an actual peace. Why did everyone have to be so bloody selfish?! The border is unconditional, what an idiotic settlement!

#VRbutnotlikethat #Mimi #Marsohu #Jotiri #wiptale #WIP scene #linssioriginals #original fiction

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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Here’s another old piece of Ritidia from high school! It’s not well drawn and the coloring sucks but from some reason I still like it. Sorry the pic is so big, I can’t resize it because this computer doesn’t have a photo editing software and it might blow up if I tried to download one, it’s already trying so hard!;<

Back in the day not everyone in the VR world had magic and so they had the concept o “witch”, which were often depicted as riding snails. Don’t ask whether the snails were giant or the witches were tiny, I have no memory of it.

Anyway, here’s the outfit that has lasted through all iterations of VR: a loose tunic and harem pants!

Masterpost

#seliseli #VRbutnotlikethat #Ritidia #illustrations #wiptale

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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Here’s some ideas for Tagor fashion. I used to doodle these in class, back in the carefree days of high school. The one with longer hair and black eyebrows is Ritidia, the one with shorter hair and blond eyebrows is Mimi. There have been some subtle changes to their appearance in the 6 years since - Ritidia’s eyes have gotten a little bigger and rounder and she’s all around pudgier, while Mimi’s hair went from blonde to light brown.

You can tell I wasn’t very good at drawing and I can assure you I haven’t improved much in 6 years:D

Masterpost

#VRbutnotlikethat #Mimi #Ritidia #illustrations #wiptale

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR - Synopsis

Masterpost

Spoilers as with all my synopses. I’ve been writing this goddamn thing for about 13 years and I’m barely any closer to finishing it in 2017 than I was in primary school:/ So unless some AMAZING PERSON would like to co-author this menace it’s not like you’d get the whole story anyway:p

Mimi Willow is on a camping trip with her parents, goes for a walk in the woods, and stumbles into a small town. Figuring that her dad ONCE AGAIN got them lost, she asks for directions - but no one in town speaks English. She can't find her way back to the woods, and is stranded alone in a place she doesn't know and where she can't understand anyone. Eventually a woman leads her to a grandiose manor, whose residents welcome her into their lives, because they believe her to be their long lost child and sibling, princess Rititia. Mimi tries to learn how to live in a world where magic is ingrained part of life for everyone but her, fit in a super religious society as an atheist, navigate the political waters of Tagor and bring peace between two cultures that hate each other's guts, all the while suffering from homesickness. Things are going somewhat okay - then she goes and falls in love with a member of the despised race of kini. Being a foreigner in Tagor was hard enough already with the culture's deep-seated and passionate xenophobia, but now she has lowered herself to an animal and loses any lingering goodwill the people used to have for their wayward princess. With her status and career lost and life on the line, Mimi is confined to the palace in fear of assassination attempts. To keep herself sane she slips out in disguises and goes to her lover - Marsohu pleads her to stay in the forest, but she can't adapt to hunting her own food and living in caves. When she becomes pregnant with his child, even the forest becomes dangerous for her: while other kinis tolerate her even while finding her a disgrace, Marsohu's cousin Joyjaa is so overcome with jealousy he unintentionally tries to kill her with magic any time he sees her. There is barely anything left for Mimi in Tagor, and the old homesickness comes back in full force. All her research comes up empty, and with a second child on the way, the rush to get her out is very real. As her children also become targets for the people, Mimi is forced to ask for help from the one person who can kill her just by thinking of it - Joyjaa. With his incredibly strong magic, and Marsohu's pleads, he is able to open a new dimensional portal, and the family steps into a new world. Unfortunately, it's not the one Mimi hoped it to be - while it looks like Earth, it's created from her memories, as evidenced by her family not having aged a day. History and culture are radically different, since her vague memories of Hitler, the space race, the civil rights movement and the like allowed for a lot of wiggle room. The family settles down more or less happy. It doesn't take long for the badly meshing lifestyles between Mimi and Marsohu to cause divorce, but the two stay good friends. The father stays an important part of Therese and Syli's lives.

#spoilers #VRbutnotlikethat #synopsis #linssioriginals

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR Chapter 5 - 35 hours

Masterpost <-Chapter 4

For the second morning in a row I was fitted for a dress. For the second morning in a row I had to command two men out of my room so I could put it on. But at least this one was a lot less over the top. No spider-butt silk, no intricate songbird embroidery, just petticoats up the wazoo. Made the whole thing a really wide bell-shape, it probably wouldn’t fit through most doors. And of course they had to stick some embroidery in there, the collar and cuffs were completely covered in geometric patterns. The red embroidery looked pretty good against the cream base, even though usually the white in these cases was pure white.

Asahana brought some more clothes to fill my drawer, including my own shirt and jeans. They seemed more appropriate for my plan, so I put them on.

“I’m not Rititia”, I reminded Asahana. I’m not Rititia I’m not Rititia I’m not Rititia I’m not Rititia I’m not Rititia I’m not Rititia.

Maybe he wasn’t a telepath after all, he looked just the same as always. Or maybe he was just so obsessed with me it didn’t matter to him either way. Cripes, what a creep!

Yeah, he couldn’t be a telepath, no reaction of any sort to that. It must have been Ritidia, maybe she could send thoughts to other people’s heads like that dickhead and his pet. But clearly she couldn’t read minds like they could, otherwise she would have known on the spot I wasn’t her sister.

Speaking of her, she was very excited about something today. In addition to her usual happy babble she clapped her hands a lot and did little jumps on the way to breakfast. Her little brother was also cheery – and had his hair on milkmaid braids. Well, I had already seen male servants and the master of the house in dresses, clearly their idea of masculine and feminine wasn’t the same as mine.

Alele and Suni were early birds, or maybe just always hungry, since they always seemed to be at the table before anyone else. This morning they looked like they had pulled an all-nighter. Alele had even done her own hair, apparently, that single sloppy braid would’ve gotten her hairdresser fired. It was the first time I saw her hair down, and was surprised to see it was a bit shorter than Ritidia’s. With her proud displaying of it I thought it would have been victorian.

Ugh, don’t get lost in thought! You were here to tell her you weren’t her dead daughter!

“Pa Rititia”, I said to her and shaking my head vigorously. “Ko Mimi”, and enthusiastic nodding. It wasn’t very eloquent, all I knew how to say was “no” and “yes”. But at least she understood something was wrong, even if she didn’t fully get what it was. I patted my chest and repeated “Pa Rititia”, shaking my head. I tried hard to ignore Suni who again looked ready to burst into tears, and keep my attention solely on Alele.

“Ko Rititia”, she insisted, and that was final. She wouldn’t hear any more of my objections, and gestured me to sit down. I protested a few more times, but she was relentless and started looking worryingly much like her husband. I wanted spare her the embarrassment of having others see her cry, since it was so important to her she look poised at all times. Ritidia whispered comforting things to me, even Kinati looked worried for me. Everything was all right. There was no need to worry about anything.

That could only have been Ritidia. I sure didn’t feel like everything would be fine, despite what my brain said. This family had fake-gained a family member, but mine had real-lost one. My friends would never see me again. No one on my planet would ever know where I had gone. They wouldn’t know why I had gone. They’d interrogate Claire about my secret boyfriends and ask Heidi about the time I said I wanted to run away from home because Marie had been a little shit and broken my phone. Maybe after a while even they would believe I had run off with some guy I met on the internet. The one thing no one would ever have the imagination to suspect was that I had been spirited away to another dimension and was impersonating a dead girl. What an unbelievable predicament, this just couldn’t be real. I had to be in some kind of lucid coma dream. Maybe I had slipped and banged my head on a rock. The brain damage was too severe, I would never wake up. They’d pull the plug any minute now.

In the afternoon I felt calm enough to do some studying. I was never good at school, but I liked it alright. If nothing else the brain work let me concentrate on something other than my own misery. I went over my little dictionary, practised the alphabet some more, doodled a few more pictures. Stared brainlessly out the window. Noticed a buggy coming to the courtyard, and an elderly couple climbing out. The whole family was there to receive them. Suni parents. There was lots of hugging.

More family coming home.

The word for family was “itoa”. Ritidia had told me while introducing Suni’s parents. She had brought out an extensive and artistic family tree, and traced her lineage up to them. Her grandmother’s name was Sareleila Rini, the grandfather’s name was Tatela Siuen. I remember thinking that it was a little difficult to tell which parent was which, but mostly I was so overcome with loneliness and envy I just thought about my own family. Only two of my own grandparents still lived, mum’s mum died of post-partum infection five days after my mother’s birth, and dad’s mum died of a heart attack five years ago. I had three cousins, all under 20 years of age. All from dad’s side, of course – I was my mother’s only child. Far as we knew, anyway. We didn’t want to think about it, who’d want to think about it, but who’s to say she didn’t have more babies in her acid-fueled state of mind and just throw them out in to the forest? Who’s to say the reason the bear hung out at the cottage wasn’t that it had learned the hut was a good source of easy meat?

Suni’s parents were more posh than he was, but they weren’t on Alele’s level. They could see I wasn’t having the time of my life and retreated to their room. For a while I hoped Ritidia would also piss off, but after a while I found her presence just a bit comforting. She taught me more family words, and listened when I told her about my own family – not that she understood, but it felt like she did, on some level. I told her about my own una, Marie, that she was a horrible brat but also bloody funny. She drew these dadaist stick-figure comics that mum and dad never understood, because understanding wasn’t the point. Mum, me, had a bad una who got into drugs at fifteen, was kicked out at eighteen, and lived in shanty towns and homeless shelters for six years, then “built” a “hut”, that is to say “gathered some garbage and stacked them to a crude approximation of shelter”, in a forest. That’s where I was born. They said I must have only been a few months old when that bear killed my mother, and if it had been winter I would have died from exposure. A hiker had heard me crying and called the cops. And as so often happens when someone dies, everyone suddenly hoped they had treated her better and had always wanted to support her – so mum adopted me and named me after her sister’s childhood nickname. Madeline and Patricia – Mimi and Pats.

I fully expected to cry again, but Ritidia helped me through it. She shared some stories of her own family – she had the most to tell about her paternal cousins, sesetunas. Heliko and Alima’s eldest, Ailasou, lived in the third wing. Ailasou’s younger sibling, Hoibon, had the first occupied room from Ritidia’s. Uli was also apparently an interesting case, as Ritidia talked about them for a solid ten minutes.

As the names went on, I noticed that none of the spouses shared their last name. Some had no surname at all. Suni was a Rini, as most of the people in the manor, and married to a Niasa. However, his sibling Heliko Rini had married Alima - just Alima. And Kee Rini had married Sato. It wasn’t laziness, this family tree was a work of art, and it wasn’t lack of space, if there was enough space to write Umalartuna Lustaro there was space for Sato Whatever.

Alele and her kids were the only Niasas in the manor. It started to look like Suni really was the heir. Made you question just how much more rich and powerful the Niasas were since his kids had inherited the mother’s name. I tried to ask about this by saying “Niasa” and gesturing vaguely at the painted family tree. Ritidia was smart, I had to give her that – she immediately took me to the library, where she dug out a living room wall-sized painting. Being paper, it rolled up nicely to save some space, but it was still taller than us. This one went back to Ritidia’s great-great-great grandparents, and had so many branches that following them got confusing. First off, the name Niasa had only been introduced to the the family three generations ago – and then there was someone who’s first name was Niasa, when their other parent’s surname was Niasa.

I told Ritidia my surname was Willow, but their alphabet didn’t have W. So I used the Latin alphabet. She was very interested, asked me to write her name, and then revealed she had a middle name – Jaslak. Her siblings’ full names were Rititia Nupuri Niasa and Kinati Geauda Niasa. Alele Umlie Niasa had a nice rhythm to it, as did Suni Tsejanna Rini. Much better than Mimi Agatha Willow. And I didn’t even have a relative named Agatha! There was no reason to make me sound that old! Marie hadn’t gotten off much better, her full name was Virginia Marie. Who gives their kid a religious pun for a name? My parents are crap at naming. Marie had tried to go by Ginny for all of elemantary school, but for some reason Marie stuck.

I tried to convey nickname to Ritidia through some gestures and examples, so it was no wonder she didn’t understand. Then I wrote some examples on the paper. She still might not have been exactly on the map, but she did shorten Ritidia to Dia. Not many names in her family could be shortened, but when they could, they didn’t differ from the root – Asatair just became Asa or Tair, and Tolekirara became Toleki. No Richard-to-Dicks in this language. The weird thing was that many of the longer names, such as Beruhon, could not be shortened at all.

I was trying to ask about her maternal aunts and uncles, fonas, when she informed that her sesetuna, cousin, and their parent had come home – by suddenly piping up “Sesetuna u me sias!”. I let myself be dragged outside to receive them alongside the rest of the family, Suni’s parents included. Their knees were in great shape, two sets of stairs and they weren’t even out of breath. They smiled at me quietly.

It wasn’t just one cousin and one parent coming home, it was both Kee and Sato and all three of their kids- – Hamaoben, Uli and Lieha. So far Suni’s brother Kee was the only unmistakeably masculine man – he had a goatee and a jawline like Superman. His wife, Sato, turned out to be his husband. Glad to see this country was pretty progressive, not only were they married and recognized as a couple in the family tree, they also had adopted three kids, who were registered into the family tree as their own.

I wasn’t quite as glad about the sudden interest in me. Once Ritidia had introduced me, Uli squeed and tried to hug me with the same enthusiasm as Ritidia had when she first saw me. Rititia must have been incredibly loved to get this greeting after disappearing for God knows how many years. Uli’s enormous earrings clinked softly with each look he threw my way. He went beyond effeminate – valley girl mannerisms aside, he openly wore girly jewellery, flowers in his bun and frilly dresses, and probably lipstick, no one has that kind of pink naturally. He didn’t necessarily look bad – just weird since he was so clearly a young boy, 14 at the most. His sisters weren’t even half as feminine. And that’s saying something, considering their neatly braided hairdos and flowy dresses. Of the whole family, Sato was the only one to wear trousers. Note that it didn’t mean he wasn’t also wearing flowers.

Unlike Suni’s parents, this family had some luggage with them and went to unpack. Ritidia urged me to change into the cream dress. I had been done for only a minute when the next batch of family returned home – this time it was Temaha with his wife Matuke, and their daughter Asa. All three of them were remarkably “common people”, like Suni. No jewellery, simple cotton clothes, one braid or ponytail. None of the trio tried to hug me, also very reasonable behaviour – or Ritidia had sent them a message beforehand. They weren’t sure what to make of me, and in the end just slightly bowed to me.

Even with the three families at the table, the hilariously huge dining table had space to spare. Even if you counted in the four missing family members, there were still seats for about fifteen guests. Table conversation was still loud enough, and seemed to mostly be about me. There were lots of Mimis and Rititias thrown around. Some were said with pity, some with rage, and Uli’s feelings about the matter seemed to change every twenty seconds. He had changed out of his cream cake layer dress to something approximating casual wear. The earrings had stayed on, though.

I didn’t feel like any of the displeasure was aimed at me, however. I guess they were just angry at the circumstances. The long-lost daughter had finally been found, but she didn’t speak the language and thought she was someone else.

By the end of the dinner only the grandparents, Temaha, and Asa still called me Rititia. The rest had accepted that the Rititia they saw in front of them was a different person from the one they used to know, and so could be called by a different name. Whether it was more for their comfort or mine, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t have much time to wonder about it anyway – the language teacher appeared again, and I was ushered back into the study room. I was presented with an illustrated dictionary meant for small children. The teacher fixed my pronunciation, made me write some more, taught some expressions – like “thank you” and “bye bye” - and wished me good night.

Rushing my brain with something else to think besides my family had worked amazingly. I completely forgot about them at dinner, and didn’t have time to feel sorry for myself in language class. I had been under the covers for half an hour before I suddenly thought of mum again, and by then I was so exhausted I fell asleep soon after regardless.

#VRbutnotlikethat #Mimi #Ritidia #Alele #Suni #Kinati #Asahana #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction #get ready for some language lessons #no one likes them #but i have fun making up new words

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

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VR Chapter 4 - 24 hours

Masterpost <-Chapter 3 Chapter 5->

Ritideea kept her hand on my shoulder and mumbled sweet nothings the whole way. The girl genuinely felt bad for me, which made it less awkward. She almost made me feel like things really would be okay. She even left the curtains open this time to cheer me up. Not that there was much to look at, just the same colorful, detached houses, until we went underground.

That was why there was no traffic on the streets. All the buggies ran under them. There were smaller, less fancy ones than ours, ones without roofs, and ones that could only be buses. At times I could swear felt a slight tremor, like there was a tube below. How on Earth (or whatever this planet was called) a tiny town like this could afford a tube was beyond me.

We resurfaced next to a park, where two separate parties had gathered on a picnic. It was a pretty nice day out, sunny but not too hot. Maybe I should take a walk after changing. Maybe I could have someone show me around town.

Or not. There was a small crowd gathered in front of the manor. The two guards at the gate had received backup that was keeping an eye on the people. Everyone of them erupted into overjoyed hoots when they saw the buggy pull up, soon synching up to a unified cheer of “Rititeea! Rititeea!”. The name that the father had called me, so similar to Ritideea. Were they actually chanting “Ritideea”?

No, pretty sure that was a T.

A few tried to rush the gate as it opened, but overall the small crowd was remarkably well-behaved. They came to the gate once it was again closed, and quieted down almost instantly when Ritideea addressed them. She bowed to them (eliciting some more cheers), drew me to her side and started explaining something, it sounded like. It was a short explanation, after which the crowd started whispering amongst themselves. We went inside before they dispersed.

Now, the inside. It was nothing but bustle. Servants cleaning like mad, scrubbing the floors, walls and windows in each floor, dusting artwork, polishing furniture and decorations… Was this normal spring cleaning…? It was getting difficult to tell what was normal behaviour. I was already getting used to being bowed at every five minutes, but was Ritideea pausing to chat with a servant typical? It didn’t happen this often yesterday. Was lunch usually this busy? Alehleh and Soonee had a bunch of papers with them at the table and they were almost more interested in them than the food. Ritideea was apparently making some kind of plans with Kika, while Keenahty inhaled his food and ran off. Seemed to be his thing. He also had a servant with him today, an androgynous person with their hair on a large bun, who went after him slowly and composed. They were almost as refined and chilly as Alehleh.

Speaking of whom, she was trying to write something on her paper with a fine brush. The paper wouldn’t stay still, so her husband reached over to hold it in place. He got a quick smile as thanks. The two were an unexpected pair – the wife decked out in silk, the husband in cotton. The wife aloof and difficult to approach, the husband emotional and always smiling. The wife well into her forties, the husband only approaching them. Opposites had attracted? Probably Alehleh, the jewel business owner’s daughter, had found a commoner interesting. There was such a contrast between them. Alehleh was so clearly upper-class: her patterned silk blouse and long, azure blue pencil skirt looked expensive as hell, while Soonee’s straight, cranberry red dress lacked any decorations. He also didn’t bother doing his hair, aside from putting it on a ponytail at the nape of his neck – Alehleh on the other hand had hers on an elaborate braided bun. Wealth and style next to comfortable affordability. Maybe one day I could ask how they met.

...one day… Would they even let me stay? I was a complete stranger who didn’t even speak their language, why would they let me stay? I had already overstayed my welcome if you asked me, I’d have dumped me at the nearest police station the minute I came to the house. But instead they had taken me in, fed me, given me a place to sleep and bribed a beastman into helping me. That bribe had looked nothing short of extravagant. Did these people really just have that much spare time and money? Can you imagine how bloody bored you’d have to be in order to take a distraction like this?

Well beyond anything I could imagine, it turned out. After lunch, Asahana appeared and guided me to one the rooms on the first floor – one that had already been scrubbed squeaky clean, thanks to the Spartan decoration. Just a single table with six chairs around it. In one of the chairs was sat a woman, and on the table was a stack of papers, an inkwell, and two brushes.

The woman turned out to be a teacher. She used a brush to write something on the paper, then read it out loud to me, and started teaching me the alphabet. Writing with a brush was surprisingly tricky, but after a few hours of practice I could manage it all right. I could also remember most of the letters, at least for the time being, they��d probably be out of my head come morning. Same went for the few words I had learned. Maybe I could get Ritideea to practice with me, she always seemed eager to spend time with me. She would help with the language, too, for sure. At least some words, something simple to start with. The phonems of this language were really different from English ones, and she had the patience to help me polish up my pronunciation. Plus she actually would correct it, instead of just smiling politely and suffering in silence like Asahana. The aforementioned man, by the way, stood in a corner the whole time. I guess he was supposed to be my moral support, but honestly it was just annoying. I mean, I understood he was probably instructed to be within reach in case I had trouble or something, but his presence was really distracting. He just looked so proud – like a parent whose kid just wrote their name for the first time. I wanted to snap at him, but I figured escaping to the guest room would spare the family a complaint of mistreatment of employees. He wouldn’t come in there unless he had actual business.

Ritideea came to get me for dinner. It was a little bit less busy than lunch, even though it had one more person – Famffarah. She was sat on the opposite side as Ritideea and Keenahty. It was only then that I wondered who she might be. I had just assumed she was a servant, but she wasn’t wearing the uniform, but a loose-fitting sleeveless top tucked into floral print harem pants. Neither was that haughty look typical for a servant. She had the look of a woman who didn’t take no shit, and it was entirely up to her to decide what shit was. She must’ve been a relative. She did share some of her features with Alehleh, namely her sharp jaw and narrow eyes. I didn’t think she much looked like anyone in the family, but then again, it’s not like first cousins usually resemblance each other much. If she was a cousin, I suspected on Soonee’s side, since she didn’t have that upper class feel to her that Alehleh did. Whoever she was, she was friendly with Ritideea. Alehleh and Soonee acknowledged her presence but didn’t talk to her that much, while Keenahty only glanced at her shyly every now and then. I think he found her quite scary – can’t say I blamed him, that great posture made her cool calmness and severe look quite effective. From the start I had been scared of saying a wrong word to her, now I was nervous to say anything at all. I tried to listen to the conversation, to get a feel of what the language sounded like, but everyone spoke so quickly and mumbled so badly it was very difficult to pick out any single words. Every sentence just sounded like baby babble. The only things I could gather were that the language had a lot of vowels and short sentences. Evidently the laconic style was in vogue. Ritideea tried to follow fashion – but often her enthusiasm took hold of her and she ended up holding a long speech. She was more child-like than her little brother.

After dinner I meant to draw some things to ask the words for them, but I couldn’t find paper in the room. Well, I had an artist as a neighbour, and if I used her bathroom door Asahana wouldn’t even have an excuse to come with me. I heard Ritideea talking with Keeka and Famfarrah, so I knocked three times before creaking the door open. Thankfully she wasn’t busy, just having her hair done. Keeka was good at braiding, that French braid was super even.

“Paper?” I asked and mimed writing. I think she understood, even though she did nothing – just looked concentrated for a few seconds and then smiled. She said something to Famfarrah, who was lounging on Ritideea’s bed. They really were friendly relatives, that’s strictly a friend activity. It seemed odd, Famfarrah was about ten years older, around 25. Maybe Ritideea was just a lot more mature than she seemed? After all, I understood zero of the things she talked to me about, maybe everything she said was actually really eloquent and deep. Even that excited babble she now started on.

And speaking of eloquent and deep, here’s someone who was neither – Asahana. He knocked on Ritideea’s door and brought with him three drawing pads, two notebooks, a veritable bouquet of brushes and inks in all the colors of the rainbow. Overachiever, much? I only needed one pad, one brush and one inkwell.

Wait wait wait. How had he known to fetch them? No one had said a word to him. Was he also a telepath? Oh God, was he reading my thoughts all the time? The things I had thought about him! He was grinning and bearing it bravely, but he must have hated me!

I took the stuff meekly and slinked off to my room. I don’t know how Asahana still managed to be so pleasant and cheery around me when he should’ve been punching me in the face, but I was thankful anyway. I spent the next few hours painting whatever things came to mind – apple, house, tall, short, bottle, plate, glass… the last two were really only recognizable next to the fork, knife and spoon. My artistic talent was next to nonexistent. On a whim I added the family and wrote their names next to their respective stick figures, and then that long-haired dickhead and his pet. I doubted I’d ever see them again, but knowing how their names were actually pronounced felt appropriate. Also, doodling was fun. I would have gone on, but Asahana came to give me the evening snack. I shooed him out quickly, embarrassed by both his enthusiasm and my own hostility.

Ritidia gave me the proper spelling for each name: Alele, Suni, Kinati, Asahana, Kika, Famfara, Jotiri, Joijaa, Marsohu – as expected, she looked a bit uncomfortable when she got to those two. She also gave me the words for most of the objects - I didn’t blame for not getting “dog” because the doodle was shady as hell, but I thought “man” and “woman” should be clear enough. Instead she informed that both of them were “kikota”, while Joijaa and Marsohu were “kini”. I had no theories as to what she thought I had asked.

What was even more surprising was that she borrowed a brush and ink to paint me(with considerable skill and speed) next to to the family, and labeled me as “Rititia”. Again with that? I shook my head and pointed to myself, and very pointedly said “Mimi.” She got up from the desk to point at the family portrait above the bed, and pointed to each family member in turn.

“Alele. Suni. Ritidia. Rititia.”

Rititia was the eldest sibling. Shit. Had they got into their heads that I was Ritidia’s older sister? Had she gone missing? Was that why she was never at the table, not that she was in aboarding school? Was this her room? Was that why the “guest room” shared its bathroom with Ritidia? But… why was the room so barren? There was nothing personal in here, just the bare necessities and the one painting! You’d think they’d have kept the room the same as it was when she disappeared, they had space to spare!

Crap, but it really did make sense. That woman had recognized me as the missing daughter of this family thanks to my resemblance to Ritidia, and that was why she had brought me to this manor instead of the police station, and why the family had welcomed me with open arms. They’d been shocked when I didn’t speak their language, because it was Rititia’s mother tongue, she must have been a daddy’s girl since Suni got so upset when I didn’t recognize him and then continued to mangle his name beyond recognition.

Did I want to set this misunderstanding straight? If I convinced them that I wasn’t Rititia, they were bound to throw me out, I wouldn’t survive three days on the street. I highly doubted I’d find a homeless shelter in time, and forget about finding a job! I couldn’t even ask how to find a job!

Okay, this had to stay a secret for just long enough until I knew the language enough to land some kind of cleaning gig. After that, for sure, I’d tell them I wasn’t their daughter! For sure.

Ritidia pointed at me smiling patiently and said “Rititia” again. I didn’t correct her this time. What had happened to her? Even if I resembled her greatly, I couldn’t look identical. She must have been missing for years, long enough to allow a margin of error in looks. Had she been kidnapped? With this family’s wealth, that option sounded realistic. Had something gone wrong? Had she died? Her body must never have been recovered since I was so easily accepted into the family. If a body had been confirmed, there would have been a lot more suspicion.

Oh God, how low can a person sink? Was I seriously going to take advantage of this grieving family? Fooling money and hospitality out of them was one thing, not a very good thing, but at least it wasn’t posing as their dead daughter and sister! Emotional manipulation is the one thing villains can’t be forgiven for!

The dead girl’s sister noticed something was wrong but didn’t know how to comfort me. After a while she took the brush again and painted more people. She connected the people with lines, and I realized she was making a family tree. It started from her and her siblings, continued to her mother and her siblings, then their children, then to her father’s family, and her grandparents. They were quick doodles, so there weren’t that many distinguishing features in them, but she gave all of their names anyway. She had eleven cousins(none of whom were Famfara), some of whom already had their own children, five aunts/uncles, and all four grandparents alive. I remembered hearing some of the names on the tour she had given me yesterday. Oddly enough they were all from Suni’s side of the family. Who would’ve ever guessed Suni was the heir to this huge manor? Alele seemed so much more fitting! Unless her family had an even more splendid castle somewhere… But castles can’t bring back your dead children. This family held a lot of love towards Rititia, and I didn’t want to use that. Tomorrow – at breakfast I would try to explain that I wasn’t her.

#VRbutnotlikethat #Mimi #Ritidia #Alele #Suni #Kinati #Asahana #Kika #Famfara #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction

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linssikeittomies · 7 years ago

Text

VR Chapter 2 - 5 hours

Have fun trying to pronounce each name! Later chapters will have the correct spellings, though I haven’t worked in a scene where the pronunciation is elaborated. Until then, pronounce everything however you like. Masterpost <- Chapter 1 Chapter 3 ->

After a short nap in a guest room upstairs I felt a lot better. That unreasonable freaking out in the street embarrassed me now, lemme tell ya. I was basically dreading the second I had to see another person again, knowing how hysterical I had looked. Look, I’m borderline famous for my cool, I’m like a teenage Jeevesette, that’s how cool I am.

So now that you know how extraordinarily rare it is for me not stay in control, we can move onto more important things. After my breakdown, the girl and the woman showed me upstairs to the third floor. That floor looked a bit more like an actual living space instead of a display of wealth, with a semicircle of comfortable couches and reading lamps in the centre of the very large room, two giant bookshelves against a wall, a grand piano looking thing and string instruments against the opposite wall, and paintings of varying skill level all over the place.

The guest room I had been given was incredibly bare bones compared to the rest of the manor. A queen sized bed with a plain headboard, a small bookshelf with only three books in it, a medium-sized dresser, an L-shaped desk pushed into a corner, and only one painting. It was a family portrait. Of the strict blonde woman, a foppish black-haired man, a toddler with sandy brown hair, and a baby with large green eyes and bright blonde hair. So yeah, I’m guessing it was the mirror-image girl (pretty clearly the strict woman was her mum now that my brain was functioning properly, they looked too much alike to be anything but close relatives) with the dad and a sibling. I thought it was a little weird to have a family portrait in a guest room, but it was a pretty painting. I love me some details, and the amount of tiny details fit into the clothing of the family was simply astounding. It wasn’t a big painting, but it still must have taken years to complete, what with all the folds of the clothing and the vast amount of embroidery and shimmering gems. No one’s skin was an even tone, the natural coloration and the lighting was taken into consideration, jeez, you could almost see the pores! And the flower the older sibling was holding even had a minuscule beetle hanging out on it, how cute was that?

But enough fawning over a painting, it was dinner time. I decided to bear my shame for the sake of my despairing stomach, opened the door, and saw a young man clad in a grey-blue bathrobe-looking thing. He bowed deep to me, his long ponytail falling over his shoulder. When he righted himself, he beamed at me, he was ecstatic to have me here. What a weirdo. And the blonde girl was also there, backed by a young woman with a blunt bob cut that suited her terribly, wearing the same bath-robe dress as the male servant. The blonde girl’s clothes were just as folk dress -inspired: a cream tunic and harem pants with bright red patterns and embroidery. Her wavy hair was gathered on a poofy ponytail on the side of her head. Her face was still eerie to look at, it really was like a photograph of mine from a few years back. Well, her eyes were a bit rounder and wider, and overall her face was a bit plumper, but you get the idea.

She said something to the servants, and they left to mind their own business. Then the blonde girl waved at me to follow her, all the way down back to the ground floor dining room, where the huge table was set. I hadn’t paid much attention to it the last time, but it was covered with several tablecloths – but not in any semblance of order. Just every imaginable colour and a lot of different sizes, some of them plain, some striped, some embroidered, just thrown on it. And okay, they had smoothed out any wrinkles, but not straightened anything. It was a mess of a dining table.

The strict woman and the foppish man were already sat, at the end as one might have imagined. The blonde girl drew out a chair for me from the side closest to them, and herself settled down next to me. Scullery maids, or whatever they’re called these days, started bringing out plates and cutlery, and I was glad to see that at least these people ate with forks and knives, I wasn’t that good with chopsticks and never even knew about other types of utensils. I was examining the lacy border of the porcelain plates when a young boy burst in out of breath, apologizing for being late or something, I would imagine, and sat down next to his sister.

Sitting in the middle of a family felt so wrong, why was my seat set here? I mean, it would be rude to change seats now but I wouldn’t have minded being sat somewhere else from the start.

There was some small talk, and valiant but truly useless attempts to include me. The younger brother looked at me warily from behind his sister, and was the only quiet one. He said a few words every now and then, and most of them were “Oona”, which seemed to be the girl’s name. The oldest sibling was nowhere to be seen, possibly a rebellious teen or out of town for now? Probably wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume she’d been sent to a boarding school, rich families like doing that.

The grub arrived on splendid silver trays, and interestingly enough comprised mostly of greens. Like 90% vegetables. There was some bread thrown in there, and a cute little dessert pie, but only one roasted bird of some sort, too small to be chicken. Not sparrow-sized either. I followed the family’s example and piled on the greens, and only took a few slices of the bird. My watch said it was only four thirty, where were the filet mignons? I would have understood a light meal on the evening, but it wasn’t even getting dark yet. I think. The dining room seemed to be in the middle of the manor, all the windows were outside in the hallway, and my seat didn’t give me a view of one. Maybe my watch was broken.

Dinner was a noisier deal than the pre-dinner, oddly enough, but quickly finished. As the servants started collecting the dishes, the mum led everyone else to a study on the other side of the manor. The design of the place was pretty odd – the rooms were in the middle of the building, with the corridor running around them, so the study the family and I ended up in had no windows. There was one tall but thin bookshelf, and a large table surrounded by plush chairs. An old woman and a middle-aged man were sitting at the table with a small pile of books set to the side. They got up to bow to the family. The dad started talking with them quietly, while the mum finally decided it was time for introductions. Why those couldn’t be done at the dinner table was beyond me, but whatever. At least I could finally call them by name instead of position.

The mum was Alehleh. Easy enough name, kinda pretty, if a bit child-like. The dad was Soonee, you’d think also easy, but then he looked ready to cry when he heard me try it out. I really sucked at pronunciation, it seemed. The girl was Ritideea, not Oona, and her name was pretty difficult to say, but unlike her dad, she wasn’t bothered by the butchering of her name. The R rolled, and the stressing seemed to change every time she said it. But she recognized her name when I said it, so good enough. And finally the son, Keenahty. He was super shy, around ten years old, and looked as much like his father as Ritideea looked like her mother.

When I introduced myself as Mimi, they all smiled patiently but also shook their heads, and Soonee corrected me with “Rititeea”. I didn’t get what that was about, and had no theories. Soonee was crestfallen. Alehleh, apparently the head of the family, ceased the nonsense by calling the two strangers to action.

First went the old woman – she introduced herself as Kaorahtsil, and proceeded to speak. I didn’t understand a word, predictably. I wasn’t exactly on Earth anymore. But she changed languages two more times, expecting something, and I couldn’t explain she wouldn’t find a language I spoke a mere few light years away. So I just said “Hi, my name is Mimi, Earth is probably in another section of the universe.” Then she admitted to the family that mine was a language she didn’t speak.

Then went the man, Sessan. He didn’t try languages, but maps. That small pile of books was atlases. I leafed through all of them, already knowing England wouldn’t be in any of them, but wanting to please him anyway. Everyone was very surprised by this development. They had never met anyone who came from so far away. They couldn’t wrap their heads around how I got here. Sessan in particular insisted I must have come by ship, over and over, and it was only after I shook my head for the fifth time that I realized… I had zero clue what he was saying, but still knew he meant ships. Wow, wasn’t that weird? Was this that translation spell I vaguely remembered screaming about earlier? Pretty crude, not very effective, but a start!

Hey wow, would you look at that, I had gone from thinking this was a town of larpers to 100 per cent believing in magic. What the hell.

But the spell didn’t work both ways. I could somewhat understand the man, but he couldn’t understand me at all. Oh, he tried, again and again, first asking about ships, then flying(even though it was plain on his face he thought that was a laughable option), then he gave up travel altogether and instead tried to find out something, anything, about my home country. He picked up on the one-way nature his spell, frustrated and confused, but no one could explain it. After this he stopped the spell, leaving me completely out of the loop as the family held council. It took nearly forty minutes for them to come up with a possible solution, and none of them liked it. Ritideea was the one who came up with the idea, but despite that the only one who hated it even more was Soonee. And after a good half hour of arguing, they reached an agreement. And thank God for that, it was exhausting to just sit there as an outsider.

After that, the servant boy from earlier took me to my room, pulled a salty snack pastry out of hammer space and hovered behind me as I ate. What a creep. I had to shoo him out quite forcibly. A little later a tailor who liked grumbling to himself came in(allowing the servant to charge back in) and took more measures of me than I had imagined existed. He made a lot of notes, talked with the servant who smiled goofy the whole time, and grumbled all the way to himself. Then he took every single measurement again before getting the hell out. I didn’t need this crap at quarter past eight.

Ritideea knocked on the door, and wanted to give me a tour of the manor. Why not, it was a bit early to turn in. And the place was quite nice, it never hurts to look at pretty things.

The third floor was mostly bedrooms – a ridiculous amount of bedrooms. Each of the three wings had about five bedrooms, and their shared bathrooms. A few had their own, I supposed those were guest rooms. Starting from the base of the first wing, first there was a guest room, then a study, then from the corner Alehleh and Soonee’s bedroom, which shared its bathroom with Keenahty’s room. Then was my guest room, the bathroom, and Ritideea. After her was a store room, containing a veritable mountain of painting supplies and canvases of several sizes. There were even a few spare easels. Another sparse guest room ended that wall, after which the third wing started. Most of the rooms in the wings seemed to be in use, but none of their occupants were present. Gigantic manor and so few residents. Was it holiday season or something?

We went down the smaller set of stairs by the third wing, and came out to a hallway. This one also contained two nicer guest rooms, and a locked door to the third wing. What was more private than the residents’ bedrooms? Ritideea’d had no problem letting me peek in those. The other two wings had one guest room and one dormitory each. In the main part of the manor, behind the two guest rooms, was a library – my favourite room in the manor so far. Jam-packed full of simple shelves, themselves bursting at the seams from all kinds of books, like a struggling public library. It felt like home. Much better than the ridiculously huge, mostly empty ballroom. It was wood-pannelled of course, for that extra oomph of bragging. The grandest piano I had ever witnessed stood near the outer wall, and the loo was so fancy pooping in one would have felt like defacing an artwork. The living room with a big, round coffee table surrounded by plush pillows was a bit more to my tastes, but the balcony on the front of the manor offered the most boring view ever: a paved courtyard, the steel gate, and the streets and houses behind it. What sucked even more was that the larger balcony at the back of the manor was barely any better. These people just did not understand gardens. There was a pretty cool fountain at the centre of the courtyard, but as you might have expected, it was paved. There were some minor bushes hugging the walls, but nothing beyond that.

This time we used the bigger staircase, which brought us in front of the dining room. The ground floor had the weirdest floor plan ever – the rooms were in the center, while the corridor ran on the outside. The rooms got shitty lighting. Even the most open room, the drawing room at the end and adjacent to the dining room, with its three open archways had to rely on electricity. The kitchen didn’t even have a door to the corridor, the air must’ve gotten stuffy there quick. Ritideea let me take a look from the door in dining room corner, but since there were people working, I didn’t want to disturb them. We continued on, turned the corner, did not go to the third wing, and came to a Roman bath. The water was faintly pink, warm, and smelled of flowers. I might take a dip there sometime, even if it was clearly meant for the important guests. Some night when I couldn’t fall asleep, then.

The rest of the rooms on the main part of the mansion were the same kind of spartan meeting rooms that the interpretor and the mage had interrogated me in. The first wing had four very lavish guest rooms, both with their own ridiculously fancy bathrooms bigger than my bedroom, obviously for the important important guests. The second wing was much the same, except it also had an extensive jewellery display. Several kilos of precious stones and pearls, just sitting there. Hate to think how much money they wasted on the jewellery they did wear.

Come to think of it, the family dressed oddly humbly. Even Alehleh, the most high class and rich-bitch of them all, wore comparatively simple dresses and necklaces. She could have gone for ermine capes and ball gowns, worn fist-sized diamonds on both ears and a whole family of rubies on her neck, but she didn’t. Sure, she did exude wealth, but you wouldn’t have guessed this much wealth. They were also pretty chummy with the servants, not dismissive and snobbish. Did that mean the actual masters of the manor were away right now? One of the lived-in rooms on the second floor had to her parents’, maybe they were the snobs. Though I didn’t remember any of the bedrooms being especially snobby. But who else but a tried and true snob builds a home like this to their family? Thus, someone had to be a snob, and I suspected Alehleh’s parents.

There was a lot of ground to cover in the manor, so I was sufficiently tuckered out once the tour finished. I couldn’t find a pair of pyjamas in the drawer, but I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in my underwear in a strange place, so I just took off my bra and left the button-up on. It wasn’t the most comfortable shirt to sleep in, but I still did fall asleep pretty fast.

#VRbutnotlikethat #Mimi #Ritidia #Alele #Suni #Kinati #Asahana #Kika #wiptale #linssioriginals #original fiction

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