and all the sinners, saints, and winners [September, catchall, OPEN]

[ruinsprofessor]

Characters: Raine Sage or China Sorrows, and you! [open]
Date: September
Location: assorted: notably, Healer’s Guild, Fire Sector, Earth Sector.
Situation: assorted, open-ended
Warnings/Rating: obligatory mention of China's magic, which can't help but come up; minor violence in the thread with Cain and China.

---



Raine

A; open; the Guild; most mornings and afternoons;

As Raine is anticipating disaster, she spends more and more time at the Guild leading up to the Chihuelans’ presence. Even after they’re gone, she’ll be relatively easy to find here.

Sometimes she’ll be at the desk in the front hall, taking her turn handling people walking in the door like the rest of the healers and students. In such cases she usually has a book open in front of her, and is usually frowning. When she’s not immediately apparent, any of the kedan who also work there will be able to direct someone looking for Raine to her office, a small room deeper in the Guild, notably ornamented with an ever-increasing number of notebooks and a single extra chair.

She’ll often seem lost in thought; barring screaming and blood, it may take her a few moments to focus on the person in front of her.

B; open and/or Duke?; Earth Sector; pre-Chihuelans;

Some few early evenings, it's possible to find Raine in a small park a little ways from the place she and Solomon live; she often takes her practical arte work outside, when she has any in mind. Lately, though, she’s been taking these infrequent occasions more to just sit in peace-- it looks rather like she’s meditating, in fact, save perhaps for the pale glow around her hands.

Though her eyes are closed, she will look up as soon as anyone comes within twenty to thirty feet, focusing on the person as the glow fades. “Did you need something?”

---

China

C; open; Fire Sector; most times of the month;

It’s not difficult to track down China Sorrows, if you’re putting your mind to it; she doesn’t make a secret of where she lives, and she stands out regardless. Most people in the area can direct the asker to the place where the too-beautiful Foreigner lives. In this case it’s in one of the nicer areas in Fire, a place she’s spent a good deal of time warding and is now almost entirely comfortable in.

Previously during the summer, she was doing work with sigils on the door, inscribing intricate designs in primarily circular patterns for a day or two. Those are all invisible now, leaving only unremarkable door and walls and windows.

It is still most advisable to knock.

D; open; College campus; specifically during the Chihuelan visit;

China does not manage inconspicuous well, but her network of informants is still not what it was. Thus, there are days when she’ll find herself a bench or a fountain’s edge or something equally useful to sit on, and watch the comings and goings from the College from one direction or another.

Not obviously, of course, she always has her head bent over some paper or book and she’s always arrayed in that elegantly artless way that suggests she just happens to be in the perfect light, but she hasn’t taken up a sudden interest in craftswork.

People stop to look at her, but most of them manage to restrain the urge to throw themselves at her feet. Once in a while someone stops to talk to her; if it’s not someone with a useful piece of information for her, China is much less inclined to smile.

---

[ooc; so it looked like, overall, no specific starters were necessary, but if you want to plot or want something I have not produced drop me a pm or a plurk at makaricrow. I'm always happy to adapt. c:]

Comments

[insertdadjoke]

Limits was an interesting way to put it. Cain couldn't disagree, yet there was more to it than simply what he could and couldn't handle. It was so completely involuntary that he had only come to adapt to it rather than learn how to deal with everything on its own. However, none of that changed the end product of what he had become now.

"I've had time to discover them," was all he said in response. Whether China would assume someone else with 'magic' such as she did was of similar age or take it in another direction was up to her. Much as this whole encounter had been thus far.

[inkulcation]

He looked no older than twenty-five. China was more aware than many that this didn't necessarily mean anything, and certainly it was possible he might have been learning the ins and outs of this power from a very young age, but he was sharper than she expected from someone in their third decade.

"Have you, now," she said finally, faintly inquisitive but generally as if she didn't particularly care if she got an answer for that question or not. Again she failed to press any issues, waiting instead to see what Kane did, if he preferred to follow one thread or trade question for question.

[insertdadjoke]

There were a lot of things to be said in response to such an open-ended reply. Many ways he could take it. Overall, he didn't really mind China not giving him very much for the reveal of his own powers. If she wasn't going to ask after the actual extent of it, there was no reason for him to continue in that vein for now. Time to get some answers on other things that he had been curious about.

"I have," he said noncommittally. His true curiosity, aside from China's allure for which he had gotten a good-enough answer for now, was at the mechanics of these mages. What sort of system did they have where one could possess a monster inside of him and the other could bring words to life and be considered under the same discipline? "How exactly does learning magic work where you're from? Or... inheriting it."

[inkulcation]

Not even a question about her. There was little enough harm in answering this one, though China would certainly use others as examples if it came to that. "The ability is inborn," she said, "but the magic is not. People with the capability but no knowledge that magic exists may go their entire lives without realizing they could be sorcerers, and die as mortal as their parents. In other words, magic is something that people both are and use."

Kane obviously had some familiarity, but she wasn't about to ask him to clarify what he already knew. If he didn't use his questions carefully, that was his trouble, not hers. All the same, she paused, to see what direction he'd take that much.

[insertdadjoke]

The more knowledge he had about their circumstances, the better picture Cain could get of what their individual qualities meant. For a place where the foreigners couldn't really learn about what places they all came from save through word of mouth, it was difficult to paint an accurate picture. Everyone had things they wanted to hide or considered unimportant, and sometimes those things were key in seeing what wasn't the same.

"Then it's much more likely for families to continue on, get longer and more powerful while those undiscovered may just never even be found," he said. It was just an observation more than anything, society always being the same in some ways no matter the actual situation surrounding it. "Did you discover your own magic?"

[inkulcation]

"There are always a number of people, each generation, who find their way into magic accidentally," she said carelessly, dismissive. It was always trouble, of course, for their mortal families -- Valkyrie would have to deal with that herself, sooner or later. China wondered how she would manage. If China would even hear about it.

Now that was a curious turn of nostalgia. China set it aside, to be dealt with later, and her mind, like the well-ordered thing it was, obeyed. Mostly.

"I was raised in it," she said before much longer, with the same sort of dismissiveness, though for her part this was more artful than the former. She did not talk of her family much, and especially not with someone like Cain. Another pause, calm, because following up with a rapid subject change would betray the dislike. "And you? Oh, I know it's not magic, as you say. But I have to wonder if you were always this way."

[insertdadjoke]

Which really just seemed like more trouble that it was worth. Magic randomly popping up in a generation and driving a wedge between families... then again, Cain couldn't quite take the moral high ground there. The deathsight that he passed on eventually faded from blood lines, but would sometimes reappear several generations later through genetic happenstance and that wasn't exactly fair to anyone involved, either. Not quite the same but enough that he could easily understand the trouble that it all must have caused.

"That would depend on how you define always and this way," Cain said simply. It was a vague redirect on her part and yet one he could have answered more clearly, but he wanted to see where she was going with the question. There were definitely a number of different ways she could be interpreting his power through what she had observed.

[inkulcation]

It certainly could be trouble. It could also be worth it. China didn't comment further on family and magic. "I would say the word 'always' is perfectly clear, but I suppose I can clarify," she said, considering. "Very well, let me put it this way: have you possessed this healing trait since your birth, or as close to it as you can remember, or was it something that arrived unheralded at a later date?"

[insertdadjoke]

Cain allowed the drop of that part of the conversation and let her continue her questioning. It was an astute one, possibly trying to link its similarity to the magic she knew and what she might be perceiving as magic on his end no matter what he said. Especially if they shared traits like they sort of did.

"The short answer is that it arrived at a later date," he said, head tipped to the side. "And the long answer would be... complicated."

That was to say, delving into things she hadn't asked about yet.

[inkulcation]

"Of course it is," she murmured. But she was still at a disadvantage; she hardly even knew what questions to ask to yield the detailed answers she wanted. "But since we have already agreed to an exchange of sorts, and you can discern the direction of my interests, I don't see why that should stop you. Unless... is it beyond your abilities to explain, or do you think it beyond mine to understand?"

Either was some variety of insult, but it allowed Kane to pick the tenor of the conversation ongoing.

[insertdadjoke]

Disadvantages were made to be overcome. It was obvious by the way Cain held himself that he was merely waiting, no judgment or any sort. Just collecting the reactions and information she was giving him. Whatever she chose to do, he was willing to stick through it until she was satisfied or frustrated enough to kick him out. He was sure they had a lot of information to exchange.

"It's outside the scope of questions we've asked so far," Cain said. Family. That was one move he was waiting to see if she would make; Cain could speak of his own, but generally abstained without proper prompting. It was definitely more complicated than anything else in his life.

[inkulcation]

China raised her eyebrows. Gestured like she was urging him to continue on, regardless. "Any questions we haven't asked are, quite technically, outside that scope," she pointed out. "That's hardly going to stop either of us from asking new."

She paused, and tilted her head a little, as if something had occurred to her. Ah. Of course. What they'd spoken of so far was mostly innocuous, so far as such things went. Magic, and the way it was passed down. "Personal, then?" China asked lightly.

[insertdadjoke]

It was better to let China guide the questions. Whether or not she was letting personal interest choose what she asked, there was a certain amount of culpability to being the instigator even if it was only following the natural trail of the conversation. Keeping her engaged was just as important as answering her questions to have his own answered in return.

"Familial," he corrected. A subset of personal, one that tended to get a rather different response from anything that had simply to do only with them. "I just didn't want to presume. If you're fine with talking about that, I can continue."

[inkulcation]

That didn't net a visible response, but China herself was not best pleased by that possible turn. He'd been curious about her family before, though, she supposed, only in the context of how magic was passed down. If she could keep him to that topic, rather than any others related to family, it would be fine enough.

China weighed her curiosity and the usefulness of knowing as much as she could gather about Kane's particular talents against the topics that might come up and her ability to redirect around them, and made a decision. "I don't mind," she said with a little shrug, off-handed. "What there is of them to say."