maia drazhar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
goblinemperor) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riverviewlogs2018-07-06 08:57 pm
goblinemperor) wrote in riverviewlogs2018-07-06 08:57 pm
{ open } anyplace is better
who: maia + anyone!
what: maia getting settled in & catch-all
when: july
where: the skytram, a grocery store, the hospice care center, & various places
warnings: v. brief ritual suicide mention, will otherwise add as needed
[ Maia thinks that he has a bit of an unfair advantage, compared to many of the others who were pulled through the portal into this utterly unknown, baffling, big, scary world: he's been through this before. Not here on this moon, no. But he'd had his life turned completely upside-down in the middle of the night, and had been thrust into a situation he was entirely unprepared for and had no choice but to accept. He'd had the eyes of the world on him, then, and the hopes and safety of a kingdom of people weighing on his shoulders. If he'd crashed and burned, he wouldn't have been the only one to suffer: the consequences would have spread like ripples, hurting countless people he'd never met or even heard of.
So, by comparison, being brought to this place, where his mistakes are entirely his own, where the little mistakes he makes along the way are not being observed, scrutinized, tallied, and taken as evidence about his own ineptitude (or worse, taken as evidence for the overall inferiority of people with goblin blood). Of course, there are still people relying on him. He cannot stay in this place forever, but must merely bide his time here until the portal aligns so he may be returned home. If he is not, if he never returns, the kingdom will be plunged into chaos. Idra will be made into a child emperor, ruled over by regents and in grave peril. His nohecharei will commit revethvoran - dear Cala, and Beshelar, dead because they could not protect him. Csevet would survive - he is adept at that - but Maia does not think it arrogance to assume he would mourn. So would his tiny cousins, Ino and Mireän; they had already lost their father, their mother, their grandfather and other uncles.
He has to survive, to get back to them, to steer the Elflands towards a kinder, brighter, better future. But in the meantime... in the meantime, he has been granted a little peace. A little privacy. A little respite, away from the Court, away from the burdens of being emperor. Some god had answered a prayer he did not even realize had grown so strong in his heart and had given him this interval of time away from everything he had known. And he intends to make the most of it. ]
1. SkyTram
[ Maia had spent some of the money given to him upon his arrival to purchase a pass that allows him unlimited access to the SkyTram. During the orientation, when they had assigned him his job, one of the Guards had taken pity on him and she had explained that the tram was the best way for him to get from the communal housing to where he worked.
He does not start his training at work until next week, but Maia wants to make sure he knows that route, that he will be capable of navigating the way on his own when that day comes. So, feeling dizzy with nervousness and excitement, he boards the train at the stop closes to the Community Housing and sits in an empty seat. His eyes are as round as coins, and he has to re-balance himself when the train leaves the station. It moves a lot faster than he'd expected. Maia grips the metal bar in front of the seat he is in, looking rather like a startled cat: his ears low, whole body tense as he assesses the situation. This is fine. This is okay. He can do this. ]
2. Groceries
[ Thanks to the kindness of a few strangers, Maia finds his way to an establishment where he can buy food to prepare for himself. He walks in, looking around, observing what others are doing. The majority of people seem to be carrying small baskets, like the ones he sees stacked by the door. Easy enough to figure that out. He picks one up, tucks it under his arm, and braves the aisles.
Copying others is only going to get him so far, though. Maia has never cooked a meal, never fed himself, in his entire life. Even at Edonomee, there had been a cook. Preparing food for himself had never been an option offered to Maia. And, daunted as he is by the shelves and shelves and shelves of unfamiliar foods, he starts to smile a little. He finds, upon inspection, that many of the foods come in packages which have tiny, printed writing on them, bearing instructions. He might know nothing of cooking, but he could follow instructions.
That doesn't mean he has heard of any of these dishes. Feeling a surge of bravery, he lifts a box, or bag, or container, and asks someone perusing a nearby shelf: ]
Pardon me, but may we inquire... have you ever eaten this?
3. Moonstone Hospice (for Beverly)
[ Maia shows up for his first day full of determination. He has never had a job before (unless being the emperor of all the Elflands counts), and he knows that Beshelar and Csevet and the rest of them would see it as entirely beneath him, but he has his heart set on doing it properly. When the people at his orientation had asked him questions about his life and his abilities, Maia had been sure they would place him in some leadership role, some smaller-scale version of being a ruler. But instead, they had offered him this: a position where he could spend time helping to care for people who were ill, and suffering. People who had been ill for a very long time, some of whom might be dying.
People like his mother.
Despite all the years that have passed, his chest still aches, thinking of her. He'd grown up at her side, loving her with every ounce of himself, doing everything he could to cheer her, to comfort her. She had only been a few years older than he is, now, when she had died. But there were others like her. People in pain, people who were separated from their homelands and their families. People who wanted a kind hand to hold, a listening ear to tell stories to.
His job, he'd been told, came with a week's worth of afternoon training sessions, from doctor volunteers. He wasn't going to be providing medical care, but needed to know the basics about some things to do his job properly. Maia doesn't disagree - he knows just how ignorant he is about all the advanced technology that exists in this place, for the treatment of ill people. So he arrives early, hair in the neatest, tightest braided bun he could manage on his own, wearing the scrubs he'd been instructed to buy, nervous but ready to make a good impression and learn.
Maia comes up to the front desk, bows (he's still got a lot to learn), and asks: ]
Good afternoon. We were told we would be working here. There is- our training is meant to start today?
4. [ Either post a starter of your own or come plot with me on plurk for something else! ]
what: maia getting settled in & catch-all
when: july
where: the skytram, a grocery store, the hospice care center, & various places
warnings: v. brief ritual suicide mention, will otherwise add as needed
[ Maia thinks that he has a bit of an unfair advantage, compared to many of the others who were pulled through the portal into this utterly unknown, baffling, big, scary world: he's been through this before. Not here on this moon, no. But he'd had his life turned completely upside-down in the middle of the night, and had been thrust into a situation he was entirely unprepared for and had no choice but to accept. He'd had the eyes of the world on him, then, and the hopes and safety of a kingdom of people weighing on his shoulders. If he'd crashed and burned, he wouldn't have been the only one to suffer: the consequences would have spread like ripples, hurting countless people he'd never met or even heard of.
So, by comparison, being brought to this place, where his mistakes are entirely his own, where the little mistakes he makes along the way are not being observed, scrutinized, tallied, and taken as evidence about his own ineptitude (or worse, taken as evidence for the overall inferiority of people with goblin blood). Of course, there are still people relying on him. He cannot stay in this place forever, but must merely bide his time here until the portal aligns so he may be returned home. If he is not, if he never returns, the kingdom will be plunged into chaos. Idra will be made into a child emperor, ruled over by regents and in grave peril. His nohecharei will commit revethvoran - dear Cala, and Beshelar, dead because they could not protect him. Csevet would survive - he is adept at that - but Maia does not think it arrogance to assume he would mourn. So would his tiny cousins, Ino and Mireän; they had already lost their father, their mother, their grandfather and other uncles.
He has to survive, to get back to them, to steer the Elflands towards a kinder, brighter, better future. But in the meantime... in the meantime, he has been granted a little peace. A little privacy. A little respite, away from the Court, away from the burdens of being emperor. Some god had answered a prayer he did not even realize had grown so strong in his heart and had given him this interval of time away from everything he had known. And he intends to make the most of it. ]
1. SkyTram
[ Maia had spent some of the money given to him upon his arrival to purchase a pass that allows him unlimited access to the SkyTram. During the orientation, when they had assigned him his job, one of the Guards had taken pity on him and she had explained that the tram was the best way for him to get from the communal housing to where he worked.
He does not start his training at work until next week, but Maia wants to make sure he knows that route, that he will be capable of navigating the way on his own when that day comes. So, feeling dizzy with nervousness and excitement, he boards the train at the stop closes to the Community Housing and sits in an empty seat. His eyes are as round as coins, and he has to re-balance himself when the train leaves the station. It moves a lot faster than he'd expected. Maia grips the metal bar in front of the seat he is in, looking rather like a startled cat: his ears low, whole body tense as he assesses the situation. This is fine. This is okay. He can do this. ]
2. Groceries
[ Thanks to the kindness of a few strangers, Maia finds his way to an establishment where he can buy food to prepare for himself. He walks in, looking around, observing what others are doing. The majority of people seem to be carrying small baskets, like the ones he sees stacked by the door. Easy enough to figure that out. He picks one up, tucks it under his arm, and braves the aisles.
Copying others is only going to get him so far, though. Maia has never cooked a meal, never fed himself, in his entire life. Even at Edonomee, there had been a cook. Preparing food for himself had never been an option offered to Maia. And, daunted as he is by the shelves and shelves and shelves of unfamiliar foods, he starts to smile a little. He finds, upon inspection, that many of the foods come in packages which have tiny, printed writing on them, bearing instructions. He might know nothing of cooking, but he could follow instructions.
That doesn't mean he has heard of any of these dishes. Feeling a surge of bravery, he lifts a box, or bag, or container, and asks someone perusing a nearby shelf: ]
Pardon me, but may we inquire... have you ever eaten this?
3. Moonstone Hospice (for Beverly)
[ Maia shows up for his first day full of determination. He has never had a job before (unless being the emperor of all the Elflands counts), and he knows that Beshelar and Csevet and the rest of them would see it as entirely beneath him, but he has his heart set on doing it properly. When the people at his orientation had asked him questions about his life and his abilities, Maia had been sure they would place him in some leadership role, some smaller-scale version of being a ruler. But instead, they had offered him this: a position where he could spend time helping to care for people who were ill, and suffering. People who had been ill for a very long time, some of whom might be dying.
People like his mother.
Despite all the years that have passed, his chest still aches, thinking of her. He'd grown up at her side, loving her with every ounce of himself, doing everything he could to cheer her, to comfort her. She had only been a few years older than he is, now, when she had died. But there were others like her. People in pain, people who were separated from their homelands and their families. People who wanted a kind hand to hold, a listening ear to tell stories to.
His job, he'd been told, came with a week's worth of afternoon training sessions, from doctor volunteers. He wasn't going to be providing medical care, but needed to know the basics about some things to do his job properly. Maia doesn't disagree - he knows just how ignorant he is about all the advanced technology that exists in this place, for the treatment of ill people. So he arrives early, hair in the neatest, tightest braided bun he could manage on his own, wearing the scrubs he'd been instructed to buy, nervous but ready to make a good impression and learn.
Maia comes up to the front desk, bows (he's still got a lot to learn), and asks: ]
Good afternoon. We were told we would be working here. There is- our training is meant to start today?
4. [ Either post a starter of your own or come plot with me on plurk for something else! ]
no subject
[Alex doesn't feel any sort of shame about it, she just knows what she is and isn't good at and it's definitely not this. Even when she had everything all measured out and everything from Hello Fresh, Alex couldn't get it done. Of course, it's not like she could admit that. So instead, she just looks over the options on the shelves, as well as what's in his hand with a little nod.]
When he wasn't here, I ended up actually doing take out from a lot of other places. I've got a list of good ones for there if you want. But all of this stuff is just kind of the add a certain amount of water things. They normally are pretty hard to mess--
[The question catches her off guard, and she just blinks a bit before saying simply:]
Yes? [The word is a question that admits her surprise, but then she gives him a little smile and nods, this time answering without it.]
Yeah, I'm a human from Earth.
no subject
We have never cooked before in our life, so it is quite possible that we, too, will be horrible at it.
[ Feeling emboldened by her kindness and willingness to help and admit to her own flaws, Maia asks, curious: ]
Please, forgive us if the question is an impertinent one, but what do you mean by 'partner'? The term can encompass many different definitions...
[ A dance partner, a professional partner, a trade partner - perhaps it can even mean a friend or a lover, here, for all he knows. Better to establish the boundaries of that word, now, rather than embarrass himself later on with someone less understanding than Alex seems to be. ]
We asked only for our own curiosity. We were unfamiliar with humans, before our arrival here. Our father was an elf of Ethuveraz, and our mother a goblin from Barizhan.
[ The chances she's heard of either place, based on his past encounters here, are slim. Still, it's where he's from, and maybe eventually it will ring a bell for someone. ]
no subject
[Alex's words are light and teasing, and she's smiling at him, even when he asks her that question. She knows that it can, which is one of the reason that Alex uses it to describe her relationship with Strand. They're partners in the romantic sense, and partners in the work sense, certainly, given the show, and their partners in the life sense, even if their life ends up lasting something like seventy-two hours after the two of them get sent home.
Normally, Alex would default to 'boyfriend' but Richard's hatred of it is well known. 'Together' and 'companion' are also words she knows he's used to describe them, but they can be just as nebulous as partner can be, and she's trying to give the Goblin-Elf a more concrete definition for what the two of them were to one another. In the end, Alex settled on a rather old-fashioned word, but one that well... worked.]
Richard is my lover. [There she said it with a straight face, even if there was the silly smile that tended to happen occasionally when she mentioned him or thought about him. At least it wasn't as bad as when Paul had her read the fanfic and she'd dissolved into giggles.
Her entire life's goal (other than beating Thomas Warren) was making sure Richard never knew of that sound file.]
But I'm afraid I don't know where either of those are. We're sort of involved in a multiverse here, and places like Earth seem to have infinite variations at this point. I'm sorry.
[But Alex was a reporter, and she couldn't help but ask:]
Is it custom where you're from to refer to yourself in the plural?
no subject
Her instinct to go old-school with her diction is a good one; boyfriend would have only earned her a blank stare. Lover is familiar, and unambiguous. Maia's skin is too dark to show much of a blush, but the slight dip of his ears and his expression communicate his embarrassment nonetheless. ]
Ah- yes, that... clears things up. We thank you.
[ Just another difference from home. At court, no one would declare so openly to having a lover. But this is a change that he rather likes. People here are so much more direct. He doesn't have to spend an endless amount of time trying to figure out the most basic things. ]
No, no, please, do not apologize. We do not know of your home, either.
[ Before he can say more, ask questions about what Earth was like, she is asking about how he's referring to himself, and Maia gives a equivocal half-shrug, making an uncertain gesture with one hand. ]
Not exactly. We believe it is a small mistake in whatever mechanism is translating between us. We understand that, compared to others here, our speech contains more... degrees of formality. So to your ears 'we' - [ Maia uses the first person formal. ] - and 'we' - [ His tone is the only thing that indicates a difference in the words, though he's using the plural. ] - sound the same, do they not? And if- I say I, that sounds normal, to you, only to our ears it is... rather intimate, or else rude, and certainly not appropriate for addressing a kind stranger.
no subject
But for now, she just smiled, because while Richard might keep things secret, Alex doing it was a difficult matter at best. After all, she tended to be too open on the show, and too open with her relationships, and too open with her history. So, of course it would make sense that she would declare him to be her lover so openly. Even if she did notice the blush and it prompted her not to say any more on the subject of partners.
Then she listened to what he said. Alex is bilingual, being Canadian, but she can barely hear the difference in what he's saying. Then she nodded quickly.]
I understand. It's how you differentiate relationships? That makes a lot of sense actually.
no subject
[ Despite how hard it is, he's pretty invested in trying... especially after a rather humiliating encounter the day before, when he had been relating an anecdote to a chatty stranger at the tram station, who had burst into laughter when he'd said 'thee'. On some level, Maia understands it probably was funny, since apparently he sounded archaic, but being laughed at like that, when his guard had been down, had left him feeling wretched. ]
But where are ou- my manners?
[ He sticks out his hand for a handshake, and there is a kind of stiffness to it that suggests this is another new custom he has just recently learned, rather than something he's done a hundred times before. ]
I am Maia. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
no subject
Shaking her head at her own lack of manners, Alex just took his hand with a smile.]
Sorry, my manners seem to be pretty terrible today, Maia. It's nice to meet you, I'm Alex. Alex Reagan. And don't worry, you don't need to change who you are just because you're talking to me. I appreciate the effort, but it must be frustrating and exhausting to do it though!
no subject
You are very kind, Merrem Reagan. There are not many who think thus.
[ People always wanted others to change who they were - in small and in large ways. Something about the way she said it, though, seemed honest to Maia. He could not be sure, of course. He had known countless nobles who would say one thing to your face, and quite another behind your back. But he trusts his instincts about people, and Alex seems genuine. ]
May we inquire - what is your role, in this place? Your profession, or position?
[ One of those terms has got to apply, right? ]
no subject
If it's easier, you can just call me Alex. Everyone does anyway.
[Well, most people, save her boyfriend when he's winding her up, honestly. But that's a them sort of thing, versus how Alex is like with everyone else in Riverview. Thankfully, talking with Vikings and the like means that Alex actually has a fairly decent frame of reference for trying to describe her job to people who probably aren't familiar with a reporter from their homeworld, so the question doesn't fluster her as much as it otherwise might have.]
I'm a reporter! It's a little like a combination between a town crier and a storyteller, I think. Only the stories I tell are real and based around things that are happening here in Riverview. Basically, I do most of the news stories here that the News Service releases. Or a good chunk anyway.
no subject
[ It's a pleasant name - more similar in sound to the names he was used to back at the Untheileneise Court than any others he's heard since coming here.
It is good that Alex is used to explaining what a reporter is; while there were important messages that got spread through various means, and people dedicated to carrying those messages and informing people, journalism of the kind Alex is talking about isn't something Maia is familiar with. He listens, fascinated. How much good that must do, to have someone whose job is to collect and disseminate all the important news of the day. How much more efficient, than relying on gossip and hearsay from whoever saw fit to tell it, though amateur and biased... ]
That sounds like a very important job, and one that would only be given to someone whose integrity can be trusted. Is it what you did, before you came here?
[ Maybe a strange question to ask, but it made sense in the context of his life. His own job here is radically different, after all, than being an emperor. ]
no subject
Richard and Simon might actually kill her if it did.
So Alex just gives him a s smile and a little bit of a shrug.]
It's ,mostly what I did. Back home I didn't work for a large media company like this one is. It was smaller and more niche than this one here is. There worked on the stories that we chose to do rather than actually working on the main sort of news I guess. There were larger newspapers and things for that.