A visit to Alexandria.

[3rdangel]

Mikoto has been almost overly cautious in picking the time to confront the younger of her brothers. She'd waited until she was certain Regulus had recovered, found suitable Gaian style clothing, and had the Mages arrange for transportation from their Village. They could PINPoint there, thus avoiding too many guests at the Desert Palace.

Mikoto has already dressed, and is in the sitting room of Kuja's former quarters.

So is Regulus, but he's still glancing over his clothing options with a look that, under the initial calm veneer, hints that he's more than a bit disbelieving that there are people who actually dress this way in public. It seems to have almost rendered him incapable of speech. He gives a particularly incredulous look to a wide-brimmed red hat with a big white feather in it. "Rather... foppish isn't it?"

Comments

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim laughs at his expression. She's safely dressed in a casual shirt and trousers from her Earth - perhaps it looks very Muggle to him, but feathers or not it's all so much camouflage to her.

"It's cheerful," she tells him. Or Natasha does, because although Telrim chooses to explain and Telrim is amused, the words and the voice are all the human's. Or so she thinks. "Unafraid to draw attention and have fun. You should try it."

She looks over to the other person in the room for a moment. "Ah, Mikoto, I didn't ask what Alexandria is like. Should we bring anything?"

[darker_black]

Ah. Gryffindor clothes. To Regulus, that goes a long way towards explaining that outfit's suspected ability to make the wearer look like an utter git. Searching through the pile a bit more he manages to gather together something more understated in blacks and greens. "Attracting attention in an unfamiliar place is rarely a smart move," he says, and ducks back into the bedroom to change.

"I've never actually been there," Mikoto admits, "though I have heard about it frequently. Alexandria is the capital city of one of the three nations of Gaia. I cannot think of any specific gear that would be required. The most efficient option will likely be to go straight to the palace and inform the guards that I am there to speak to Zidane. And to watch in case he tries to escape out a window."

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim chuckles again, a little more thoughtfully. He is fairly clever, for a human...

She nods cheerfully at Mikoto, and not just from continuing amusement. Telrim really does like going to new places. Exploration, reconnaissance - novelty. "I'm sure we can prevent any window escapes. One way or other. Have you given Regulus his wand back?"

[3rdangel]

Mikoto nods. "It seemed reasonable to do so at this point. He is rather dependent on his world's form of magic." That and there are only so many excuses.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim shrugs, as lightly as if that was a minor observation to her. "Does he seem so? Well, hopefully he won't need to use it much today. Although maybe we should ask him for some demonstration later..."

[3rdangel]

"I doubt he'll have any objections," says Mikoto. That neither Vivi nor I require a wand has interested him enough for a mutual exchange of information."

Which is all the time there is to chat behind his back, as Regulus has finished getting dressed. It isn't that this place isn't interesting, but if he really is in some whole other world, he'd like to see more of it than the inside of one building. "Well, now, are we ready to go?"

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim chuckles and almost remarks that they should watch how much he learns. But Regulus is back, and it's time to go.

"Since we're fully equipped, I think so." She nods and steps away from the chair she's leaning against. Yep. Fully equipped. Just notepad and pen in one pocket, and her trusty pocket scanner tucked inside another. What more could a spy ask for?

[darker_black]

Mikoto nods and retrieves her PINPoint from a pocket. She'd considered getting Regulus one of his own, but had postponed that idea since he still tends to give most technology a look like he isn't certain it won't bite his fingers off...

In fact, he's giving a well-hidden but still very slightly uneasy look at the PINPoint now.

Mikoto ignores the look to set the coordinates for the Mage Village.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

"You're looking better," Telrim remarks to Regulus, casually. She doesn't just mean his physical recovery. Although having grown up with magic - and lived among Death Eaters - he's likely to be more adaptable than the average human.

Just... perhaps not to technology. It's an interesting observation.

[darker_black]

"Ah, well, I wasn't at my best when we met, what with the circumstances," Regulus replies.

Mikoto just glances over to see if Telrim has a PINPoint ready or will be 'hitching' a ride via contact. At the same time, she reaches for Regulus' wrist.

Luckily she'd tried to explain the PINPoint to him earlier, before Telrim had arrived, and since Apparating with someone else also required contact he'd understood it readily enough and doesn't pull away.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim does indeed have a PINpoint at the ready, favouring any strategy that gives her more co-ordinates (even if she has no idea yet what she'll ever need them for).

She raises it a little as she catches Mikoto's look. "Do you mind giving me the co-ordinates?"

It seems polite to ask. Come to think of it, she's never given anyone co-ordinates from her universe who didn't already belong there.

[darker_black]

And Mikoto doesn't mind, as she recites the information. The Mages haven't bothered too much with securing their village from the Nexus, so she doesn't see where telling the coordinates makes any great difference.

"It's a shame I haven't been there before, or I could simply apparate," says Regulus. He's still distrustful that a muggle device could do the job as well as magic.

The Black Mage Village, when they arrive, looks about as it always does - a small fantasy-type village tucked away in a clearing in a conifer forest. There are actually far more Genomes than Mages here these days, but the Mages have hope of catching up there someday.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim murmurs a thanks as she enters the co-ordinates, and in a few moments they're out in the fresh forest air and surrounded by trees. Telrim blinks and looks around, momentarily looking- a little nostalgic, perhaps.

She tucks that brief, genuine pleasure under a more normal facade and looks at Regulus. "Well, now you know what PINpointing's like, too. How does it compare?"

[darker_black]

Regulus blinks and looks around, then frowns slightly. "Ah, well, it's certainly different." None of that feeling like you'd been squeezed through a straw, for example. He's not about to say it might be an improvement, though. Even in another universe he has the horrid feeling his mother would find some way to send him a howler if he showed too much approval for a muggle device.

Vivi's headed their way, trailed by several smaller Mages. Regulus smiles. He still thinks they're adorable. The smile cracks only briefly when he spots one of the adult Mages not far off... he'd taken Vivi for an adult of the species before and hadn't realized they'd get that big.

Mikoto glances over the sky for signs of an airship approaching, and does her best to completely ignore any of the Genomes around.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Perhaps - if all goes well, Telrim thinks, she'll have the chance to make her own comparison. It's entertaining to wonder just what power or scientific principles his magic is tapping into, and whether it overlaps with more familiar technology.

For once she's not watching Regulus or Mikoto. Her gaze is flicking around the scenery, taking in the other people here, the size of the village, the shape of the buildings, whether they have gardens. And the Genomes - they're awake now, far from the interchangeable automatons of the videos. It occurs to her how much of a factor they must be now.

She too smiles on noticing the Mages' approach. Those look like juveniles with Vivi, and that... could be interesting, but if they're like him, she expects no problems. Harmless, friendly, useful people. What's not to appreciate?

"I forgot there'd be so many Genomes around now," she remarks to Mikoto, not thinking about it. "It's amazing to see them... you know. All there."

[darker_black]

The village isn't very large, though it's big enough that a small brook runs through it. Another path leads just out of sight. Even with the Genomes about, there couldn't be more than a hundred people here. And from the layout of the town, this is roughly four times as many people as it once held.

There's an odd division in building design in the town. The Genomes' houses sit in neat rows, small dormitory buildings in kiln-fired brick. They're almost all identical, though here and there a few individual attempts at decoration are starting to show.

The older part of town is less ordered, almost cute in a quaint way. Some buildings seem to be brick, but it looks a little squished... as if the bricks were stacked up and then baked instead of the other way around. There are a few other oddities in design, as if the town was designed and built on trial and error... mostly error. This section of the village looks like it might have held as many as twenty-five people or so at one time, and yet it doesn't look like there are that many adult Mages around.

There are, indeed, gardens. Neat ordered rows from the Genomes, patches and plots in odd decorative patterns from the Mages. Most hold vegetables, but the Mages also seem to have planted flowers and a few other things that just looked interesting to them. They like the colors.

Mikoto just nods slightly, tail wrapped tightly around a leg as if she thinks it will betray her. "Yes. They are now ruined for their intended purpose. They are Gaian, not Terran..."

Regulus, meanwhile, has most of his attention on the little Mages, and is talking to them and trying to remember all their names. "Now... which one are you again? Teo or Tavi?"

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Such a small place. Utterly unobjectionable to the other people of Gaia, surely. Although remembering Vivi's words about being feared, Telrim suspects her empathy with humanoid problems is just faulty. Still, right now it's peaceful enough to feel like its own little world, the rest of Gaia as distant as her own homeworld.

"How do the other Gaians feel about them?" she asks quietly. Not prodding for a reaction, just curious. She's in a new place now, and she wants to know all about it. And Regulus is keeping up his winning streak with the Mages. She looks over and chuckles at them, apparently quite delighted. Which her host in fact is because the little mages are adorable. "Oh- is the airship coming soon, Mikoto? Or will we have time to go and look at the gardens?"

[mage_hatchlings]

"I doubt most of this world's population are aware they exist. None of them questioned Zidane's origins, beyond the occasional puzzlement over his tail." She glances up at the sky. "We are a little early, and it might be late."

"You want to see the gardens?" says Luca.

"We can show you!" says Kaze. And soon the Magelets are all over themselves, and practically all over the company in their enthusiasm to lead the way. It's as if it doesn't even occur to them that their guests could see perfectly well to follow without Magelets tugging on sleeves and hems and whatever else they can grab, waddling ahead and darting back. Throughout all the sudden activity they keep up a steady chatter about the gardens and what's growing in them, and what they've helped with this year.

Regulus lets himself be tugged along, trying to hold back laughter at least enough to see where he's going.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim doesn't normally appreciate manhandling, but this hardly counts, and it is far better-intentioned than any pushing-around she's had before. She can't help laughing aloud at the Magelet-storm her question has produced - scratch her previous suspicion, they're even more enthusiastically helpful than their elders. She's surprised that that's possible!

She stumbles a bit before she starts concentrating on where various tiny Mages want her to go, though she tries to pay attention to all the chatter anyway. "Wow, you planted all that just this year? And which bit did you do?"

Good thing Controllers get lots of practice with multitasking.

[darker_black]

And they happily show off the fruits and veggies, keeping up a running chatter that is often difficult to tell just which of the group is speaking.

"Uh huh! We planted the veggies this year. The fruit trees and berries are here longer. They don't have to be planted every year, and they keep getting bigger. Like us!"

"These are carrots! The orange part is under the ground."

"Um, all parts! We helped with all of it."

Regulus can't help laughing. "And they're very nice carrots, too."

Mikoto seems to just be trying to wait out their enthusiasm, and watch for the airship,

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

"You must've gotten really dirty with that much digging," Telrim teases, giving everything its due inspection and acting fascinated by every new detail told. And oh, she's good at that. But the young trees in particular catch her interest - they're the most visible and also the most familiar things in the garden, though the flowering plants win out on colour.

"How big do you think these will get?" she asks them, reaching out to brush the bark with her fingers. "Big enough to climb?" Do Mage-children climb? Human children do, she knows, and Hork-Bajir are born in the trees...

[mage_hatchlings]

Several Magelets nod. "Yes!" "Very big."

"They're supposed to get as tall as the Synthesis Shop," says Lono, pointing out one of the older buildings in town.

"We'll have to climb them to get fruit out," adds Kaze. "Or float. I like float."

"This one is apples," comments Juro, indicating the tree that had been touched.

There's the very faintest sound of an approaching airship. Mikoto looks relieved.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

"You can really make yourselves float? I don't know anyone else who can do that!" She's not counting the floating objects because that would make things messy. Telrim looks down at Juro curiously - at least, she thinks that's the one who spoke last. "How many kinds do you-"

That sound from up high. She looks up abruptly, frowning for a moment. Then she remembers what they're waiting for. But incoming aircraft have always been something you pay attention to.

[3rdangel]

'Airship' in this universe is rather literal, as it does resemble the offspring of a sailing ship and a blimp. It also doesn't have room to land in the village, instead hovering overhead and lowering a boarding ladder.

Climbing up may be slightly delayed by the need to get the Magelets back on the ground, as several of them are bobbing around like Magelet-shaped balloons to demonstrate how well they can cast Float on themselves.

Mikoto just starts climbing anyway. She considers the Magelets Vivi's problem to control, if he wants to bring them along.

Regulus gives a passing Magelet a slight tug that dispels the Float, and ends up with an armload of little mage instead. Since that worked, he'll start helping Vivi get the rest down and on their way up the ladder.

[in-the-cracks.livejournal.com]

Telrim doesn't notice the Magelets' demonstration at all for a minute or two. She's staring up at the airship with sharp eyes and a critical mind, trying to picture how it flies, how fast it might go, how many people it can hold. It looks primitive and unwieldy, but there is a certain... elegance in the sail-ship-like design.

Snapping back to what they're mean to be doing, she chuckles to see what the Magelets have been doing. Though by then they're almost all grounded again, and all she can do is to make sure they get on the ladder all right before she and the other (relative) adults join them. The ladder looks rather distressing wavy to her.

It occurs to the Controller along the way that Regulus's reaction to the airship might be interesting to watch out for. Though at a guess it depends how much the vessel depends (or doesn't) on magic...