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 Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:52 pm
◈ WHO: Lorenzo, Vesna, & Reuben
◈ WHERE: The Convention Center in Barton Town
◈ WHEN: Late Morning
◈ WEATHER: It's inside a large convention center, so it's air conditioned and rather cool. But the outside is sunny.
Reuben checked his watch once again. Where the hell was Calista? She was the one who "needed him" to be here and yet she was the one flaking. He stood just inside the convention center amidst a few hundred magical beings. Witches, wizards, warlocks, and whatever else even contained an ounce of magical power was here to trade their wares, spells, and whatever else mages owned. They also hosted workshops and different things of that nature. Reuben didn't care for any of that. He was just here to accompany his friend, who apparently wasn't going to show up. "Well, I may as well make the most of this while I wait," he whispered to himself with a sigh, diving deeper into the center. It wasn't like him to delve into magic; after all, he himself wasn't a magical being whatsoever. Calista oftentimes dragged him to these types of things for her own sanity while he just stayed back and tried his best to promote his own budding business. Reuben passed by many magical beings, each one more fantastical than the previous. He tried his best not to stare too much at any one individual, but he couldn't help himself when looking at some of the beings here. Some were scary and intimidating, yet others were quite the opposite - sweet and inviting. He just tried his best to stay away until Cali arrived, that would be his best bet. It was here that he found himself at a bar in the cafe attached to the center ordering a cup of tea just waiting for his friend to arrive.
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 4:30 pm
"Ice cream, ice cream, ice... cream... crepes!!"
Lorenzo Fisch normally tried to keep a low profile at conventions. It was important that he attend such gatherings to stay abreast of magical research and catch up with non-necromantic contacts, but the field of necromantic study on Gaia was small, and the broader field of magical study was enormous, and Lorenzo was hardly at home in a crowd. Normally he'd be nursing a coffee somewhere quiet this early before the lectures started, holed up with a few other necromancers for support. But, having heard that she might get a chance to see cool magic instead of gross magic for a change, Vesna had asked to attend, and when she found out that the Barton convention center had a café that sold ice cream crepes, the deal was unfortunately sealed.
"I saw them in a manga once!" Vesna babbled as Lorenzo pushed through the crowd behind her, keeping up a steady stream of pardons and sorries and excuse-mes as he did so. "You're supposed to go get them with your friends, but everyone whose number I have was busy, so I guess I'll just get them with you."
"Lucky me," Lorenzo muttered in between a 'sorry' and a 'beg your pardon'. Since Vesna had come to live with him, he had gone from skipping meals out of forgetfulness some days to overeating, mostly sweets, so Vesna, who didn't yet have a stomach, could instagram them. He used to enjoy desserts. Now they inspired a sense of dread.
To his dismay, Vesna reached the café before he did, floating above the crowd to get ahead. By the time he had dodged his way through, she had already ordered for him.
"I got one of each," Vesna said brightly, greeting him with four different crepes containing generous scoops of ice cream slathered in fresh fruit. "I'll pose with them, then you should eat them quickly before they melt."
"Four," Lorenzo said weakly.
"I know," Vesna complained. "Such a small selection!" She squinted and took a picture of the strawberry one, then thrust it at Lorenzo, scrolling on her phone to find the ideal filter.
"I can't wait until I have a stomach," she sighed wistfully, publishing the picture after a few minutes of fussing.
Lorenzo licked the ice cream tentatively and sighed. "Agreed."
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:14 pm
As Reuben sipped his tea he looked around the cafe. It didn't take the man long to see this beautiful floating creature coming to the counter to order. Reuben tried his best not to stare, but it was too difficult. At least the other people around were whole, four legged creatures. 'What an awesome costume.', Reu thought to himself as he took yet another sip. He even had to double take a few times because it looked so realistic. It actually took him a few moments to realize that she was legitimately floating there with nothing beneath her but a ribbon. What kind of creature was that? A familiar of sorts, perhaps? It was something he'd never seen before, that much was for sure. She ordered like any other person and turned to a man who had apparently caught up with her.
Reuben just tried to keep his ears latched onto their voices in the distance over the mutterings of everyone else in the room. It was too difficult. The floating creature had a cell phone and everything and almost acted as though she was a teenager. Reu couldn't begin to imagine how much magnificent magic had to go into creating such a thing. But that man she was with, he must have been the one to create her.
Reuben had moved tables in order to be closer to the pair, and overheard one sentence that struck him by surprise. "I can't wait until I have a stomach." His eyes widened and he knew that he needed to get the courage to ask them how they were doing. The herbalist felt as though he was in high school again, trying to talk to the popular kids at the lunch tables. Oh how he hated high school. But this was the present and he was a grown adult. But how did one start a conversation with an obviously powerful mage and his half-human companion?
At this point, Reuben was standing next to their table with a blank stare on his face until he realized where he was. Utterly embarrassed and face quite red, all he could do was laugh, which at the time felt like the most uncomfortable thing he could have done, and said, "Hello there, I'm so sorry. You looked like someone I knew and now I can tell you're not who I thought you were," he said, pointing at the man.
Reuben rubbed the back of his head before spitting out any words he could muster that seemed appropriate for the time. "I'm Reuben," he said awkwardly, looking between the Raevan and the man.
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 5:37 pm
Lorenzo was a man naturally inclined to be sympathetic to such social gaffes, being fairly awkward himself, and, more importantly, he was a man who dreaded the thought of finishing four ice cream crepes alone. "No, please!" he exclaimed, waving one crepe-filled hand. "We're all colleagues here. Crepe?"
He shoved the crepe in Reuben's general direction only to find Vesna pushing the next one in his face. "Great idea!" she gushed. "He's way more photogenic." She turned to Reuben and smiled, waving a different crepe at him in greeting. "I'm Vesna, and this is Lorenzo, my dad. He's the boring necromancer and I'm the food blogger. Buuut someday I might try to be a magical girl."
Lorenzo cleared his throat. "I'm a licensed necromancer in private practice in Durem," he elaborated. "I do a lot of public image work with the Licensed Necromancer Committee as well." He moved to reach for a business card, but remembered his hands were full of pastry. "Ah... I'll give you a card later. What line of work are you in? Is this your first time at this convention? It's mine."
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 8:46 am
Reuben couldn't help but smile when the man offered him a crepe. "Uh, yeah, sure, thanks!" he exclaimed, taking it from the man. Then the girl handed him one as well and his smile brightened. He took a seat and took a bite. It was so delicious.
"Th-thank you as well!" he said, pushing the bite into his cheek. With the compliment, he couldn't help but blush a bit, but gave her a small pose so she could photograph him. It was sweet of her to say such a nice thing. Then she began to introduce herself as well as her 'father'. A necromancer, eh? That generally didn't have a positive connotation to it. That did explain this otherworldly girl. Maybe she was his creation, perhaps? Though her looks did seem vaguely familiar to him. He just couldn't figure out why and what was drawing him to her.
"I bet you'll make the best magical girl if that's what you want. You seem like you're well on your way already to either profession!" Reuben stated excitedly for her, taking yet another bite of the crepe. He then turned his attention to Lorenzo and chuckled at their banter.
"I'm not actually any sort of magic user personally. My best friend is a witch, so she drags me all over with her, though today she told me to meet her here and she's not even showing up. But yes, this is my first time a convention of this size, by far," he stated, glancing back at the girl momentarily with a smile and then back at Lorenzo. "How're you enjoying it so far?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:50 am
"I know," Vesna said flippantly as Reuben complimented her, taking his picture from another angle. "Ok, now the other crepe, so I can take a picture of it before it gets all melty."
Lorenzo sighed and obediently lifted his second crepe, and when Vesna was finished, looked at both of them and took alternating bites of each.
"I just got here," he admitted in between bites. He had been pretty much dragged bodily over to the cafe as soon as possible. "But so far it hasn't been too overwhelming. I'm not one for crowds." He scanned the hall and said, "I'm going to be meeting up with a group from the Licensed Necromancer Committee later, we organized for a few of them to speak in panels on interdisciplinary studies and on Ethical Necromancy Awareness."
Vesna yawned theatrically. "I'm here to look for cool stuff to instagram and magical girls," she informed Reuben airily.
"What kind of witchcraft does your friend specialize in?" asked Lorenzo. "Maybe I know of her."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:15 am
Reuben couldn't help but giggle a bit at the girl's flair. She was quite the character. She was almost like a real little teenager, if he had ever seen one. He took a bite of one of the crepe's and smiled. "I'll have to get your info and follow you on there. I don't use instagram too much, personally, but I do have one. I'm more of a tumblr kind of guy, myself."
Turning his attention to Lorenzo, he nodded. "Trust me, I'm not one for all the crowds either. I'm actually pretty upset she hasn't arrived," he said, checking his phone a brief moment to notice there were no new notifications. He sighed, "and still no reply."
Reuben hadn't the slightest idea about necromancy, but he was aware that Calista always hated the practice. She used to say, 'dealings with the dead shouldn't happen, they're dead, so leave them to their afterlives in peace,' or something to that extent. He brushed off her words that gnawed at the back of his head before trying to remember her specific branch of witch craft. "Her name is Calista Khova. I know she's not too well known in the magical world, she doesn't generally attend these kinds of things. She's kind of...pushed off her training in the past. She's played around in dark magic and hexes back in the day -- I would know -- but generally I think she tends to stick to illusionary magics the most. She's tried to teach me some, but she just has the knack for it, and I'm just a 'damn mundane' she says," he chuckled. "But I honestly don't mind it. I love watching her practice and whatnot. I, myself, do some mundane herbal magic, and I guess my practices with divination may count," he concluded with a shrug. Who knew if trying to discern the future counted for anything actually magical.
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:03 pm
Vesna considered. "Tumblr is preeeeetty cool," she admitted, "I have an aesthetic blog on there, but I like how I can put stuff up on insta super easy. I don't have a tablet yet or anything, and traditional art and stuff looks way better on instagram." She showed Reuben her phone, which was open to her own instagram page. "My main is sailorvesna on everything," she explained, "And the other one is something my friend and I run because we had to pretend to be restaurant critics once. Most of my pics today are gonna be for sailorvesna, buuuuut I double post a lot of the food pics. What's your url??"
Lorenzo grimaced sympathetically. "We'll keep you company until she shows up if you want," he offered. "It'll take us at least that long to eat these crepes, surely."
"Dad's all about punctuality," Vesna explained. "Showing up fashionably late is a little too cool for him." She scrunched up her face and did her best prim Lorenzo impression, saying, "People rely on licensed necromancers to be timely when the time comes."
"We're a professional institution now," Lorenzo shrugged uncomfortably. "Dramatic entrances just make people think of the Bad Old Days."
"I've never heard of your friend," Lorenzo admitted. "I'm sorry to hear her training was difficult." The world of academic magic could be rigorous, after all. "I can't say I approve of hexes and dark magic, but I'm glad she's found a different niche." He shook his head and added, "And it's nonsense to belittle a nonmagical Gaian for studying magic. I know several nonmagical licensed necromancers who only deal with theory, and their research is vital for necromancers who do have clients to tend to. Anyone can contribute to the magical fields, gift or not."
"Yeah, but having magic is cooler," Vesna said, imitating a Sailor Moon pose. "I have illusionary magic, too!" she told Reuben eagerly. "Well, sort of, but I can't control it."
"Vesna is part rusalka," Lorenzo elaborated. "Her magical glamour persists, so it seems like people see her differently depending on what they project on her."
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:35 pm
As soon as the girl offered him her phone to look at, he took to it quite intrigued. He couldn't help but continue to glance up at her and watch her as she moved. She literally looked and acted like a teenage girl, yet she didn't have half her body and she was obviously magical (or a very well done cosplayer). He listened to Vesna explain her dealings with instagram and her friend, and then asked for his tumblr url. "Mine is thetarotist.tumblr.com, if you want to look me up and follow me. That'd be nice. I'm also thetarotist on basically everything," he continued.
Turning his attention to the guardian, he nodded. "Thanks! I'd really appreciate the company. I'm not all that fond of large crowds, personally, and this place seems to be quite packed today. Is this how conventions usually are?" he questioned. If so, he wasn't probably going to come back to another. But he will bank this into his memory, especially seeing as how he's befriended such a fascinating magical girl.
Reuben couldn't help but chuckle at the girls impression of her father, even though he didn't seem too enthused about it. When Lorenzo began to defend the mundane witches, he couldn't help but crack another, truly genuine smile. "That's very kind of you to say. We've created spells together, but she's really the only one who can perform them and have them work."
Upon hearing the explanation of Vesna's powers, Reuben was intrigued even further, if that was possible. "So, I see her differently than others do?" he mused, talking about her as if she wasn't there. He glanced back at her, looking her up and down. So, how did he view her? And how did she view herself? That was an interesting conundrum that he felt rude asking about, so he kept his mouth quiet. "Well, you're quite beautiful either way, I'm sure," he said with a smile.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 4:59 pm
While Vesna seemed mostly engrossed in looking up Reuben's various social media accounts, she was also half-aware of his staring. Looking away uncomfortably, she floated a little behind Lorenzo and pretended to be more focused on her phone than she really was.
"Licensed Necromancer Committee conventions are much smaller," Lorenzo said, speaking from his own experience. "There aren't that many of us, but normally almost everyone in the organization attends. Luckily for us, this isn't even a quarter of Gaia's magical population." Admittance was also accordingly more expensive, and Lorenzo briefly wondered how much that and these fancy ice cream crepes were actually costing him.
"Well, improving upon a spell or creating one is just as important as performing it," Lorenzo pointed out. "I know plenty of magic users who don't necessarily have the gift for innovation, just as you don't necessarily have the gift for performing magic. When you're working with a client, you don't care who made the spell, you care about whether or not it does what it's supposed to."
"Could I make spells?" Vesna asked innocently, floating around to perch her elbows on Lorenzo's shoulder.
"After years of dedicated study, maybe," Lorenzo offered.
"Ugh," drawled Vesna, pulling away from Lorenzo and floating higher to scan the crowd for something more interestingly magical looking to pay attention to.
Lorenzo rolled his eyes and looked back to Reuben. "We believe so. Certainly no one seems to describe her the same way, and there was an incident when she was choosing her name that suggested that even her perception of herself can affect how she sees herself."
"She's right here still," Vesna said from slightly above Lorenzo's head. Floating upside down to glance at Reuben without having to move too much, she added, "I just look like any other raevan. Nobody knows if I'm cute for real real, and I can't take selfies or anything, so I just don't like talking about it." She made a face and swiped at her phone, showing him pictures on her blog she'd taken of other people- some of Lorenzo, some of an undead black cat, but mostly of strangers as eccentric looking as she was.
"Anyway," she said, "I've got super cute and pretty friends to take pictures of so I don't need to take selfies!"
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 2:20 pm
Reuben kept a smile on his face and turned his attention to Lorenzo. He nodded with the information. He wasn't sure how expensive this gig was either, since he was invited by his friend and paid for by her as well. He still couldn't believe she had stood him up and wasn't getting back to him at all.
"I'm sure this isn't even an eighth of Gaia's magical populace. I've been meeting more and more magical people and creatures than I ever really intended since opening my shop," he said, glancing around the place.
Finally, his phone began to buzz with a text from Calista stating that she was on her way to the center. It was about time.
He nodded. This man was right, that much was true. He definitely did agree with the fact that you don't care who created a spell, it was all about whether or not it worked properly.
Reuben opened his mouth to speak, yet was cut off by Vesna's question about spell making. Reuben just chuckled lightly.
"Your dad is right, though. It does take a lot of practice to get good with creating spells. But, if you're dedicated, you'll be able to do it in no time, I'm sure!" He glanced up at the beautiful girl as she floated higher.
Once turning his attention back to Lorenzo, and mused upon what he said and how she responded. She couldn't even take a photo of herself? She seemed like such a teen girl, and every teenager he had ever met was just as obsessed with their "duck face" selfies or getting their pictures taken with a group of their friends. Reuben's grin faded as he remembered the days when he and Calista would take photos together and how he cherished those memories. This raevan would never have that. But, she seemed to be optimistic about her life regardless. With her optimism in mind, Reuben nodded and his smile grew.
"That's the spirit. I'm sure you have fun with that, yeah?" he questioned, turning his attention to Lorenzo, he moved in a bit closer, hoping that Vesna was distracted by her phone enough to not hear.
"I'm sorry if this question is offensive, but I'm curious, did you...create her?" he asked as quietly as he could, glancing up at Vesna a moment before focusing back on Lorenzo.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 9:48 pm
"I think there are probably cooler things I could be dedicated to," drawled Vesna. "Right now, I'm pretty dedicated to food blogging."
She nodded at his next statement. "Yeah! Friends are the best! And according to my research, friendship is actually way more powerful than magic, so maybe I won't even need to be magical to become a magical girl." she said flippantly. "Although so far most of the wizards I've met don't have many friends."
Lorenzo cleared his throat awkwardly and began, "Well, popularity is all relati--" until Reuben's next question caused him to choke a little on his extravagant ice cream crepe.
"Create?" he hissed quietly, looking carefully back at Vesna to make sure she wasn't listening. "I understand your concern, but I assure you, no licensed necromancer would ever create a living being out of body parts. All that stuff is in the bad old days where it belongs, and if a necromancer did it today, he would absolutely lose his license."
"What're you whispering about?" Vesna asked, floating between them.
"Ice cream crepes," Lorenzo lied.
Above a whisper, he explained, "Vesna is my client. She's reborn from the soul of a rusalka who contacted my mother's law office and was put in touch with me. Since rusalki and other unstable undead people often can't be resurrected through traditional means, the rusalka's soul was bonded with an energy source and transferred to a new body through a lab on Gaia."
"You weren't talking about ice cream crepes," Vesna intuited with a pout. "You were talking about me."
"About the tragic circumstance that forbids you from eating ice cream crepes?" Lorenzo hazarded.
Vesna seemed mollified. "If I work hard at growing up, I'll grow a stomach someday," she explained to Reuben. "That's something else I have to be dedicated at."
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:13 am
The man's reaction to his question took Reuben by surprise. If he had offended him, he didn't mean it. But, with wide eyes, he nodded in response. He looked up at Vesna and then back at Lorenzo as he spoke about her. So, she was basically reincarnated into this new being from a rusalka and energy source. This discovery fascinated him. Vesna was basically a successful science experiment. The fact that this type of magic existed was very powerful and it moved Reuben in such a profound way. Now he had to know more. Suddenly, the pamphlet that Oliver gave him rang in his mind. What was the name of that lab again? It couldn't be the same one, could it? "The lab that you're talking about, is it Lab...Lab 305, perhaps?" he questioned. If that were the case, he would have to look deeper into this place. Reuben turned his attention to the frei a moment. "I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy these crepes just like us in no time at all!"Upon finishing his sentence, his phone buzzed again. Looking down, it was a text. From: Calista
I'm here! Where the hell are you?
Reuben placed his phone in his pocket without texting back. He just needed to know where Vesna came from before he left. This may have been his only chance. kotaline Totally fine, no worries. <3
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 7:35 pm
"Ah, so you've heard of it," Lorenzo acknowledged. "I hadn't when I was looking into this sort of thing. One of my mother's assistants was reborn on Gaia herself, though, so she suggested that kind of thing and helped me look into various ways to go about it. Apparently, there aren't nearly as many facilities or techniques as there used to be available, but Lab 305 seemed to have both a long history and a reputable business model, so I was pleased with the solution."
He cleared his throat and added, "My mother's assistant impressed upon me that it was going to be different from the usual sort of client's case, since her guardians growing up apparently were unprepared to handle raising another person. Even going in knowing that, I'm still surprised at how personal it all becomes." He shrugged, glancing back at Vesna, who appeared to be preoccupied briefly with instagram notifications- twelve likes already!!-. "I wanted to maintain more of a client-necromancer distance, but she very quickly established that she wanted to be family. To an extent, I've accommodated her."
Apparently Vesna heard him anyway. She drawled, "Sorry for not being dead enough," and leaned idly on his shoulder. "You got, like, so many likes, Reuben! I told you, super photogenic."
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 9:01 pm
Reuben nodded, he had initially heard about it from Oliver, another guardian. Though he hadn't ever met a raevan before Vesna, so this was all new and exciting for him. "Yeah, I get that. I'm glad you found it and that it paid off for you. I'll have to dig deeper into it to see if it's something I'm interested in as well," he said with a smile, turning his attention to the frei a moment who was staring at her phone. Back to the necromancer, Reuben didn't truly understand, though why would he? He was a mundane, not a magical person like Lorenzo or Calista. "A family isn't all bad, though, right? She likes you well enough anyway," Reuben stated with a chuckle as he looked the frei over once more. She was so interesting. Only a quarter of a body and the rest was ribbon. "W-what? Likes? Let me see," he asked curiously with a furrowed brow. He hadn't even realized that the photos she took of him earlier were posted online. And so many likes in the what...five minutes or so it had been since the photo was taken? That just seemed absurd. Reuben was all for social media, but he wasn't someone who used it all that often.
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