#noa | conversations.

[amcbrisce]

LOCATION: the old haunt, the bar FOR: open! ( 0/3 )

WHAT FEELS DIFFERENT ABOUT this particular gig? she isn't quite sure. her relationship with music had become far less complicated over the years, but the guilt, the pain, the regret still clung to her. it gripped to her shoulder, nearly froze her in her tracks. regardless, as the curtains fall her feet carry her in the direction of the old haunt -- still clothed in her performance gown. the only part of the ensemble that may appear even remotely casual was the leather jacket draped over her shoulders. frankly, she couldn't help but wonder what the other patrons must be thinking of her. she got stood up. that one has a story. regardless, she keeps to herself. not a single word uttered between her perfectly-glossed lips, except for a simple martini order before returning to her silence. with a nod of appreciation, she takes a sip -- noticing someone looking to her out of her peripheral. being a paranoid woman made her external vision strong as could be. she places the glass back on the table, not yet turning. " i know what you're thinking. " she eventually speaks, gaze eventually during to face her onlooker. " gee, she looks pretty dolled up to be spending time in a dive bar. " after pausing, she continues. " it's quite alright, i would be too. "

[amcbrisce]

SOMEHOW IN DEATH, THERE were certain moments in time that made her feel more alive than ever. one of those times being the very beginning of daybreak. when the sun just begins to breach the clouds -- when the air becomes slightly more tepid than it had been before. while she found an overwhelming beauty in springtime, the earth coming to life again. a fresh chapter. there was a time when she would have wished for one -- another page turned in the book of life as a living, breathing person. while she initially had wished she was the only individual in her usual spot -- a place of solace amidst the turbulent waters for her, she can tell the stranger is looking for the same thing she is. " hello. " the specter greets him response. running her fingers through her hair, she crosses her arms over her chest -- as if she can feel the chill. she doesn't know what's real anymore, in this life after death. her shoulders ease as the other continues, further confirmation that she could let her guard down -- at least, ever so slightly. after all, he was a stranger. considering her learned experience, she knew better. " oh, it's not weird at all. especially during this time of year. " she pauses, looking outwards to the water. sometimes she wished she were a droplet of it. simply moving with the ebb and flow of the tide. her gaze soon turns back to the other before she speaks again. " sleep and i are far from friends. as unfortunate as it is. however, restlessness and i are very well acquainted. "

Location: the dock

Time: early morning, seconds before it hits daylight

it was his walking hours, just between the hours of four in the morning and six in the mornings. the family home was empty and so was he. it was quite a nice day for early spring, but he could tell that a storm was coming soon. the steady of the flame of the candlelight was blowing wildly by the open window said something in fergal’s mind. but the second fergal walked outside again, he has felt grounded. fergal just needs to remember to go touch grass these days. he lets his arm rest against the railings of the old rusted railing. He stares down at the water, wondering what it might be if he had just fallen in, lifelessly and the waves took him away, he wouldn’t mind that death, honestly. he hears the footsteps behind him as he turns around and leans against the railing, turning to face the person. despite the push for needing to fall over, his appearance changes at the sound of the cracking tree branches underneath their feet, he perks up like a deer in headlights. “ah yes," fergal says calmly. keep himself calm and collected; because that was all that fergal was here to do. “sorry i was just taking in the fresh air, it’s weird how fresh air can keep people so collected these days, isn’t it?” he asks, leaning against the railing and shoving his hands in his pockets. “what are you doing up this early?”

[pausegame]

Neri de Acutis & Rook de Riva | Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)

[cursedvida]

I understand a knee jerk reaction to nomae, but I also think they are not considering how ADVANCED Noa is. We're repeatedly told and shown how intelligent he is. Starts w/him fixing his mother's fish hut, to fixing the shock weapon, to coming up with the idea of using the water to flood the bunker. He even outsmarts Sylvia into drowning himself. In a world with already evolved and intelligent apes, Noa seems even more, and all this without advanced education.

In fact, what disturbs Mae the most is seeing how intelligent Noa is and his ability to absorb information and put it into practice. In the end, the apes have become very human, which means there must also be apes with above-average intelligence and high intellectual abilities. Noa fits this well because he clearly shows much more cognitive development than his friends. I think if at first it seems like everyone is at the same level, it’s because Noa has never left his village, he hasn’t seen beyond or experienced the world, he hasn’t been able to nurture himself with more than the limited information available in his isolated environment. Let’s say he hasn’t been able to develop his skills. Going out into the world makes it clear that he has a lot of talent and that with very little he can develop a lot, and Mae sees this quite clearly, which poses a threat.

Noa is not just an evolved ape like all those around him, who after 300 years have managed to build their own societies and develop collectively. He also shows an intellectual capacity far superior to the average of his peers. But well, people keep treating him like a defenseless animal with barely any cognitive abilities and infantilizing him just to hate on a ship. That demonstrates the general maturity level of some people, lol.

[somemo-kid]

Why is the Noa/Mae ship bothering people?

"He's an ape and she's a human." - Okay, and? Are real apes and humans going at it?

"It's weird." - Again, no REAL animal or human is involved. Also this is tumblr. If you have been here long enough or a while, I know you have seen weirder.

"It's clogging up the kotpota tag." - It's actually not. Even if it is you can literally scroll and ignore. You don't have to engage with it. Also there is this wonderful thing called blocking tags.

You are the problem. You are clogging up the tags with your constant judgment, purity culture rhetoric and Anti bullshit. Ignore it. It's that easy.

And go fuck yourselves.

[amcbrisce]

IT'S NO SECRET THAT noa could spend the quantity of entire paychecks at the bookstore and be completely fed by the pile that would come from it. however, there is such thing in this world as a need for restraint. thus, she has narrowed the collection she has accrued to a meager ( in her eyes, at the least ) collection of three. it's enough, isn't it? noa is quick to notice that she can't catch the other woman's attention -- thus, she's prepared to leave well enough alone. due to this acceptance, the ghost can't help but flinch when she's acknowledged. considering she seemed rather lovely and not at all bothered by her brazen curiosity -- noa exhales before trying again. " oh -- uh, i'm sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt you. i was just curious what you were reading. " her face begins to open up into a sweet, albeit sheepish smile. " you seemed so engrossed in it... i was thinking it, it must be quite good. "

「   🔗   」     STATUS.   ﹕   open. 「   🔗   」     LOCATION.   ﹕   aphelion  books. 「   🔗   」     FEAT.   ﹕   dani  &  your  muse.

         she  stares  blankly  at  the  page  in  front  of  her  .  eyes  scan  the  same  line  of  text  over  and  over  again  in  an  attempt  to  focus  .  dani  wasn’t  at  the  town  square  when  cosima  broke  through  the  fog  but  she  did  watch  the  scene  unfold  through  a  nearby  shop  window  .  as  much  as  she  tries  to  remain  optimistic  ,  she’s  shaken  .  she  blinks  and  shakes  her  head  .  as  if  the  simple  action  get  her  to  stop  thinking  about  the  other’s  death  .  her  free  hand  absentmindedly  reaches  out  for  her  takeout  cup  of  coffee  ,  only  for  her  attention  to  shift  when  she  realizes  someone’s  been  talking  to  her  .  “  i’m  so  sorry  ,  ”  the  wolf  smiles  sheepishly  .  “  did  you  say  something  ?  i’ve  just  got  a  lot  on  my  mind  ,  i  guess  .  ”

[sky--phantom]

De Acutis about Jacobus' House

[noa-de-cajou]

Day 23 : A mystery / Being old together / Take a drink / judgement

_____

“... So.”

“... Yep.”

“Here we are.”

“We sure are here.”

“It wasn’t easy, to try and find some time to talk face-to-face. You’re always surrounded by other people.”

I smile and pick up the piping hot cup of tea on the table.

“So it's gonna be my fault?”

“I'm merely stating facts, Ether, that's all.”

Ha! Reminds me of someone I knew.

“So. You're married to an empress now. An a half angel, half demon queen. And a werewolf. That’s certainly something.”

“Sure is! I got really lucky. But what about you, miss Director? How’d you even manage all of this?”

“I got some help. From Dal and Demetria, mainly.”

“Demetria… Like Demetria Camarra-Pharos? Oh shit, talk about a trip down memory lane. I was getting weird ass vibes from her back when we were classmates.”

“And you were right. When she learned she was going to become blind eventually, she decided to just lose her sight as soon as she could and managed to get artificial aura vision somehow.”

“What the hell.”

“I know. But she was an excellent diplomat. And I mean excellent. So I got her help despite the “weird vibes” as you’d call it.”

“Was it, uh, worth it?”

“Honestly, I'm not sure. She never specified how she got the intel she gave me, kept bumping into every furniture despite her cane, I always got complaints from everyone in the School about her behavior, she was loud, wouldn't respect my privacy, asked the most intrusive questions, and I had to clean up after her all the time. To the very end. This idiot died attempting a lichification ritual. She gave us so much trouble with all the blood, it was horrendous.”

Hm. I smile, a little.

“... Is that all?”

Nenia averts her eyes away from mine. We’re both more than a century old but her mannerisms are still the same.

“... Well. Something’s different now.”

“What is?”

“I don’t know, exactly. It’s just, sometimes I hold out my hand expecting her to slap papers into it. Or I catch myself wondering why she’s talking so long to come back from her mission. And it feels… wrong, to not hear her voice shout my name anymore. It's strange. She’s been gone more than forty years and I'm still not used to it. She reminded me of some kind of snake and I got Horus some time after, without thinking about it.”

She looks at the vivarium where her snake is sleeping, curled onto itself.

“Do you miss her?” I ask.

“I… don’t know. Dal does, I think. Sometimes he just looks at her old office door with a lost face. He knows better than me what missing people feels like.”

Yeah. I bet he does.

“It doesn’t really matter now, does it? I could never understand her. Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but I had other things on my mind, and… I don’t know. The ritual was sudden. I don't know what was going through her head, to do such a thing.”

“She liked you, didn’t she?”

“I… suppose, yes.”

“Then maybe she wanted to witness the results of what you were building. Or to spend more time with you.”

Nenia looks thrown off guard. Like, fully. She grips her cup tighter and I can actually see her face twist into a weird expression. A childish anger. Maybe some kind of sadness.

“That's the stupidest reason for a ritual I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, to you, maybe. But humans experience it differently.”

My eyes land on my wedding ring. The one on my artificial hand.

“This isn’t my first time marrying a human woman, you know. The first one died at fifty. Before her time.”

“Then why marry another? Even if the Empress lives to the maximum of a human lifespan, she'll probably die before you. You just set yourself up for more pain. Why would you go through this again?”

“Because it's worth it.”

I didn't hesitate. Not even for a second. Nenia stares at me intently, then smiles a little.

“You’ve changed, Lani.”

I wince a little. Haven’t heard that nickname in a while.

“Obviously? So did you. Like, you're taller than me now and your hair has gotten longer…”

“‘No, that's not what I mean. You look… well. If not for the ears and your age, I could swear that I have a human in front of me.”

She says that like it’s something to be sad about.

I understand, somehow.

I’ve lived too many years and too many things to be a human. Yet I tend to forget that I'm an elf, and not, like, three humans stacked upon each other.

“But I'm not human.”

“No. But you understand them.”

She chuckles and takes a sip of her tea.

“I envy you.”

… Is it really something to be envious about?

Maybe it is. Maybe Nenia would have liked to understand Demetria before she died.

But the way she says it… it’s like she doesn't even know how I do it. How to even apprehend me at all. Maybe we’ve been apart for too long.

Maybe we can't understand each other.

…

“This is the worst tea I've ever drank, Nia.”

“Well, you’ll brew it yourself next time, Lani, I have priorities.”

“Like what, ruling a country?”

“You're the worst consort I've ever met. Worse than my tea.”

“My wife does most of the ruling for a reason!"

Eh. I guess we’re okay like this.

[amcbrisce]

AIMLESSNESS. IT APPEARED TO be a reoccurring theme in the evenings of noa yoshida more times than she cared to admit. while death had certainly allowed her to set her weapons down, free herself from the subconscious tension that plagued her shoulders -- she couldn't help but notice the familiar collection of emotions crawling back with every instance that occurred in town.

perhaps it's why she finds herself breeching the outskirts of the fair, a sentient being amidst the sea of pairs and groups. she doesn't care how it looks -- attending alone. frankly, she's stopped caring what most people think outside of the performance center as every day passes. portum had once had that effect on people. an oasis for those who would otherwise be oddities in the outside world. but now, fear hung in the air with a thick, iorn like grip.

are people supposed to wear their true emotions on their face in the way the young woman in front of her is doing now? while she's well aware that customer service is a daunting task -- especially when the unknown is staring right back at them, it's etiquette standards certainly can't have changed that much. despite the service, or lack thereof, she finds herself refreshed by the honesty.

" is that the sales pitch you've been giving everyone -- or would it happen to be just for me? " the pianist questions, allowing her words to hang in the air for a moment before her face blossoms into a meek, but genuine smile. " i wish i had an answer for you, in all honesty. however, restlessness has a funny way of working sometimes. "

at the mention of the ducks, they inevitably do catch her attention. at first she's taken aback by just how long it's taken to acknowledge them -- they seem far more present to her now. considering the haze she feels like she's been walking through, the realization soon comes that her mind has been anywhere but in portum. not that she's ever quite understood where they are.

" imagine one of these being your light in the distance when all you've seen is fog. how endearing. "

OPEN STARTER . capping at [1/3] LOCATION . portum's fair, a friday night

It really wasn't beating the spooky allegations, was it? Suffocated in a thick blanket of fog, the fairground had felt less and less lively since the beginning of the year, but this awful March had been an entirely different beast. And Oriana Lan Zhu had the assessment of a dear friend echoing through their mind throughout the duration of an uncharacteristically dull Friday night shift: "it's really creepy."

Mmm. It is, a bit. As much as she puts on a brave face, the witch isn't able to comprehend their strange fascination surrounding the sea beyond Portum at the best of times, but lately... they're struggling at work. Well, they're struggling with their university work and the considerably easier part time job of watching over this particular stand. Dozens upon dozens of brightly coloured ducks designed to emulate a variety of supernatural beings float around her, but she's hardly paying attention at all.

No, instead they seemed to be entirely elsewhere, eyes unfocused until somebody seemed to approach their stand. Shit. Well, it wasn't like they got paid to be professional, and even if she did manage to lose this job, it wasn't all-important or even aspirational.

"All the things you could be doing on a Friday night and for some reason, you're here. At the hook-a-why-the-fuck-bother. Let me guess: you're here to check out the ducks?"

At least Oriana Lan smiled at them, and gestured vaguely towards a string of glow in the dark ducks hanging next to the stand.

"We just got new ones. For the fog, obviously,"

[faircatch]

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[amcbrisce]

@mystvcs

LOCATION: noa's home, afternoon FOR: adelaide derosiers

NOA HAD A RATHER complicated relationship with her life's work. music was all she knew. however, since she'd entered death -- playing had felt like freedom. there was no one looking over her shoulder, no one reminding her that because of her talent, the world would always be out to get her. instead, she was now surrounded by people who made her feel safe. why couldn't she have met people like adelaide, who was sweeter than sugar -- while she was alive? she could see it now, just how much emptiness that would have been excersized from each regimented day.

she remembered the first time adelaide had come up to her as clear as day -- to tell her that her music made her see something. quite frankly, it had taken some time for noa to become less suprised by the residents of portum, for she had once been nothing more than a mortal woman. going about her life, establishing a career. the only reason why she was here was because her life was cut short. and the worst part? they didn't know by who, or why. while she had been a prodigy, a mind above the rest -- a fixture for individuals to need from.

the teakettle whistles on the stove, bringing noa back to reality as she realizes she's been hyperfixated on it. watching the steam billow. with an oven mitt on one hand, she carries the kettle to the living room, where a coaster and two sets of china are waiting. in her other, mitt-less hand? a selection of tea bags. " i wasn't sure what would be to your liking, my dear, so i brought the whole basket. " while noa's smile may be small, it's completely genuine. the people she's met here make smiling far easier than it used to be. " give the kettle a moment to rest, the last thing i want is for you to burn yourself. "

[bonito-flakes]

- stop poking my ribs with your knee

- that's very biblical

[loversfms]

LOCATION:  noa's  apartment STATUS:  closed  /  noa  braunstein @dreamerfms

atlas  stands  outside  her  door,  trying  his  best  to  shake  his  nerves.  he's  never  been  invited  to  her  apartment  before,  and  he's  not  sure  what  he's  going  to  walk  into.  he's  not  good  at  keeping  his  cool  in  general,  much  less  when  it  came  to  speaking  with  noa.  he  has  two  bottles  of  wine  (  one  red,  one  white  because  he  didn't  know  which  she'd  prefer  )  and  a  small  gift  bag,  despite  her  saying  he  didn't  have  to  bring  anything.  she  was  kind  enough  to  spend  her  valentine's  day  with  him  (  and  he  figures  this  is  probably  her  favorite  holiday,  so  he  doesn't  take  it  lightly  ),  so  he  could  be  kind  enough  to  bring  a  gift.  however,  he  didn't  want  to  come  off  too  strong,  so  his  google  searches  consisted  of  different  variations  of  ‘  VALENTINE’S  GIFTS  THAT  ARE  SLIGHTLY  ROMANTIC  BUT  NOT  TOO  ROMANTIC  '.  he  brings  a  hand  up  to  the  door  and  knocks  gently.

[xsylcuenco]

"Some would say," Sylvia pondered. She knew herself though, she was a hopeless romantic at the end of the day and longed for a true partner, a true soulmate. At the question of whether she was enjoying the Faire, Sylvia turned to Noa with a grin. "I'm having a blast. How about you?"

"Wouldn't that just be the dream?" Noa slipped her hands into her skirt pockets as she walked with Sylvia to dispose of the apple skin. It'd save her a ton of heartbreak and money if she could commit to that idea. "You enjoying the faire?"

[noa-de-cajou]

"You know what's the best part of being a doctor?"

"No?"

"Usually, when someone dies, people are lost. They need a culprit, someone to take the blame, anyone would do, but they know that they can't put that burden on innocent people. So they wither away because their anger has nowhere to rest. But when there's a doctor, a doctor that tries to save a person and that person dies anyway, you have the perfect target. Someone to hate because they didn't save your loved one. I'll gladly play that part and take their grief upon me if that's what it takes for them to live on."

"... That's fucked up."

"I know."

"Shouldn't the best part of being a doctor be... saving people?"

"You'd think so, but no. When a patient dies, people blame you. When they live, people praise the gods."

"That sucks."

"It does, but I'm not doing this for praise. If I was, I'd be doing another job."

"But everyone praises you here."

"Because I saved every patient I had so far. We should get going, it's getting late."

"Ether? Can I ask one more question?"

"Sure."

"If you carry everybody else's anger...

...

Then who carries yours?"

[waiting-on-a-dream]

(Set before the end of trial 2 report)

Noa: Mayumi-san?

Mayumi: Good evening, Noa-san.

Noa: Ah... What are you doing here?

Mayumi: I was thinking I could help with dinner. You've already done most of the cooking, but the soup?

Noa: Oh. You're allowed to handle meals now? Wait, I mean-

Mayumi: Its okay. Yes, I was voted innocent this time.

Noa: Ah, thank you for your help then.

Mayumi: Its no problem, I want to be of use when I can.