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[tongueamok]

Hello, this is Carlisle. I mean, it's not Carlisle as in I'm actually answering you right now, so if you're trying to reply to me at the second, you should probably save your breath because I'm not really here. This is some kind of a recording of my voice, but this is my communicator. I'm going to assume these devices are as common here as they are in other places — not my world, but others, ones more technologically advanced than where I come from— so if you'd like to leave me a message, then you may do so here, or er... Right. Here is fine. So just leave yo— [beep]

Comments

[tongueamok]

Perhaps.

[And as the subject of a fire-based revenge once, he goes quiet, inhaling the steam of his tea. He probably should have infused it with some paw plant leaves to calm his nerves better, but that's generally not the kind of tea one serves to company.

There are some soft steps from the hallway as Carlisle's pet nug meanders into the room, its pink, hairless body covered in a sweater much like its master. It roots around the floor behind Carlisle's chair, looking for crumbs.]

One would have to be a very poor cook indeed to start a fire of this magnitude. And I thought my ineptitude spoke volumes.

[aroundthecoroner]

[Carlisle sniffing his tea reminds Michael that he's holding a cup of his own. He takes a sip. He's not a big tea drinker normally; he survives on a large amount of coffee, instead. But this is nice, too.]

I don't know, I guess people forget they have stuff in the oven? What- [He stares at the nug. Is that... supposed to be here...??? It's wearing a sweater so it's probably not just a random animal. Probably. One never knows in Hadriel.]

Is that, uh. Is that your pet?

[tongueamok]

Hm?

[Carlisle looks from his tea down to the nug in the sweater as it comes around his chair, still rooting around the floor, and gives the animal a soft smile despite that notch of worry still in his brow.][

Ah, yes. A friend gave him to me before she was taken from here. He's a rabbit of... some sort, in case you don't have those where you come from. Thankfully friendly, and he keeps out of my plants. I'm... honestly not certain this is the best environment for him, but he seems to have adjusted.

[Or he doesn't mind wearing sweaters. It's hard to tell.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Well, this is certainly a distraction.]

Are you... sure that's a rabbit? [It's awfully large. And those legs aren't quite right, either.]

Looks kind of like a big-eared capybara. Or a shaved aardvark.

[It's cute, though, in a weird way. The sweater helps.]

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle, for one, is thankful for the distraction from his thoughts and desire to drink; unfortunately, the rabbit doesn't make a very good conversationalist, so Michael has the advantage in that regard. The clergyman leans forward just a bit to scratch behind the creature's ears, his look confused as Michael questions it.]

A... an art-what?

[aroundthecoroner]

An aardvark.

[Time to play everyone's favorite game, "spot the world differences".]

It's like an anteater? Or like a really big mole.

[Surely a world with rabbits also has moles??? Jury's out on anteaters.]

This one's nose is different, though. Not piggy enough. What's its name?

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle just looks progressively more confused as Michael carries on. He seems to reach the apex when asked the most simple question of all.]

Name? He— oh.

[Oh indeed.]

He doesn't have one. But- but he looks enough like a rabbit. An odd... otherworldly sort of rabbit.

[He looks down at the rabbit; the creature glances his way, his ears flicking before he goes back to shuffling along the carpet.]

Miriam -- the girl who gave him to me -- said he ought to have a name, but- but I suppose I never got around to it.

[aroundthecoroner]

[Okay, no on the anteaters. And maybe the moles?]

I guess you could name him Rabbit, if he isn't one. But that also might be a little like naming a dog "Cat".

[He takes another sip of his tea.]

[tongueamok]

I've never had to name a pet before. Or named any living thing, really.

[Much like he isn't the type for physical exercise, he's also not the type to have had a pet until relatively recently.]

[aroundthecoroner]

I... [Hmm.]

I haven't either.

[Oops. What do people name pets???]

Usually you'd pick something cute, or like, a food name. Or maybe a mythological figure?

[He can't even count the number of cats named Loki.]

[tongueamok]

I'm not about to name a creature I suspect others would eat if given the chance after food.

[Michael, please.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael gives the nug another scrutinizing glance.]

Who would eat one of those? And that's not the only thing I suggested.

[tongueamok]

I don't know. Somebody. Vampires, probably. Deranged, godless beings.

[Said like someone who has met one of those and doesn't want to talk about it. He then changes the subject, exactly like someone who doesn't want to talk about it.]

I think calling him Rabbit is best for now, seeing as he likely doesn't know any other name. Do pets get a surname?

[aroundthecoroner]

[Ah yes. Deranged, godless beings. He's choosing to ignore that, and any truth inherent in that. Carlisle is probably talking about real vampires, anyway.]

I think pets usually just get the same surname as their owners? But I've also seen people give their pets new ones. So, up to you.

[tongueamok]

Hm.

[Too many choices, but he has to admit that this has, as the very least, been an adequate distraction from the fires.]

I suppose Rabbit is fine for now. Rabbit Longinmouth.

[Maybe that's... a bit much.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael makes a face and then quickly unmakes it. It's not his pet. He has no right to judge its name.]

Right. Rabbit Longinmouth it is.

[He takes yet another drink of his tea so that he won't say anything else.]

[tongueamok]

Right.

[Here comes the awkward silence. He sips at his own tea as the rabbit (Rabbit) makes his way around the room and vanishes in to the hallway once more. Several seconds pass.]

I, er. Received your application.

[aroundthecoroner]

[Ah yes, the awkward silence. It and Michael are on very familiar terms.]

Oh, right. For the, uh, glyph-crafting?

[Is this an interview now? He'd prefer that to the silence, honestly.]

[tongueamok]

Yes. For the glyphcrafting.

[Is this an interview??? It is a mystery.]

I wasn't aware you were particularly interested in magic.

[aroundthecoroner]

I kind of thought it was all fake back home, but learning that it's real here-

[He shrugs.]

And that it's something you can learn? I think it'd be a useful skill to pick up.

[tongueamok]

It's something most people in my world can do to some degree, and are taught early on should they show any scrap of talent. It's been strange, finding there are places where magic is either an unknown or a fictional entity.

[And that those with magic are a minority of sorts. That mostly means he doesn't have someone to chat magic with.]

[aroundthecoroner]

How do you know someone has talent?

[All he's seen of magic from Carlisle's world is the glyphcrafting and that seems like a weird thing for a kid to accidentally show promise in.]

The longer I'm here, and the more people tell me that this stuff is secret in their worlds, the more I wonder if it's just secret in mine.

[tongueamok]

It's no secret in my world by any stretch, but it seems I would be in the minority with that in a place like this. To find if someone has talent in a certain craft, they need only show some capacity for it despite a lack of proper training. Emily, for example—

[His expression falls just a bit. Boy, does thinking about his missing student hurt more than he will ever admit.]

... She, ah. I taught her glyphcrafting, and she immediately began to inscribe glyphs with not only the sigils I taught her, but those of a language from her world, as well. And much to my surprise, they worked. She had a gift for such things.

[Which makes her loss even worse to bear.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Whoops, accidentally stumbled on a sore subject. Michael makes a mental note of that.]

Sounds like she was pretty smart. I'm, uh, sorry she disappeared. Hopefully that means she went back to her world.

[Wait.]

Unless her world was one of the bad ones. In which case, uh, hopefully she went... somewhere... else?

[Nailed it. A+ comforting.]

[tongueamok]

Her world is a magicless one that is nonetheless host to monstrous abominations. I cannot imagine her return is a pleasant one.

[And this is why no one should ever invite these two to a party.]