Panamax steps inside. "Please show me what hurts and tell me what you are doing when it hurts."
Please let me know when you start to become hungry. Then we can feed you without the danger of your taking too much.
When I sleep, I will be gone for several hours, but then return. My self rests during this time. Dreams are ...
Dreams are ...
That is very hard to explain.
Dreams feel like they are real when they happen. But then I wake up -- and ... realize that they were not real. I imagined them, but not on purpose.
It is like a false reality that I experience when my self charges....?
Just please do not be alarmed.
The images roll off Panamax as he is thinking of dreams. Being chased by something large with too many teeth and breath that smells of oranges. Flying over a forest, doing loop-the-loops and barrel rolls. A cartoon machine racing across a hyperrealistic landscape. Sitting around a dinner table with indistinct people, but a pleasant feeling of belonging. A jack-o-lantern hatching into a flock of carnivorous pigeons.
"I believe you are the most machine person that I have ever healed," Panamax says. "I will keep in mind that you have a port here which should remain open. Usually the body knows how to heal itself and I just provide the spark, but..." He shrugs. "People are complicated, and you seem to be one of the complicated ones. I would rather not heal anything that isn't actually damaged." A frown flashes across his face, then is replaced by a more thoughtful expression.
"If you had your choice, would you rather be more human or less human? Or," Panamax taps the side of his nose, "is that a better question to ask in an inn with a drink to hand?"
Panamax grins. "I remember you slugging Jarris. I will definitely warn you first."
The grin turns to a perplexed look for a moment, which fades quickly back into his neutral expression. "You guess? I'm not sure what your Other is, but I am willing to attempt to heal her if you are concerned. We all need to be at our best if danger threatens. Do you mind if I...?" Panamax gestures toward her hair.
"Tea would be lovely," Panamax says. "I am starting to agree with you that whatever you paid for this is worth it."
As Jarris is preparing tea (or possibly fetching it, Panamax is watching carefully to see where the tea comes from), Panamax freezes briefly, then says, "I have a series of questions to ask which are more professional, and a series of statements which are less so. Which would you like first? After tea, of course."
Maye and Ash guide you to a living area stuffed with chairs, couches, and love seats. Maye, still with Oota clinging to her, shuffles into the kitchen to load up a plate with cookies. After depositing that on a table at the center of all the seating, she brings out a pitcher of lemonade and several mismatched glasses.
Ash lowers himself into a well-loved chair, looking up at Panamax with defiance only the very young or very elderly can muster up. "Well, knees bend, don't they?"
"Ash." Maye says his name sternly, picking up the plate again to pass around to the group. Miyuki takes one with a cheery 'thanks!', Zoa and Mathias both take one with a gracious 'thank you, ma'am'. The cookies are thick, with chunks of butterscotch and chocolate generously spread throughout. The first bite tastes like a childhood filled with love and snuggles... even if the person eating it never experienced such a childhood.
"My knees. Usually when the weather changes, but it's been gettin' worse these last few months." He lifts each leg one at a time, bending the knee slowly.
I will tell you when I am hungry
I cannot leave this place without your help
I tried
Esha is silent for a minute while it absorbs the information about sleep and dreams from Panamax.
Dreams are a different reality
Dreams are thoughts you cannot control
It sends Panamax a stream of rapidly changing images - nearly all of them unrecognizable, as they are subtle changes in landscape and visuals from its home world.
What is a nightmare?
I will not be alarmed unless your heart stops
"If you had your choice, would you rather be more human or less human? Or," Panamax taps the side of his nose, "is that a better question to ask in an inn with a drink to hand?"
Ceri laughs at this. It's a laugh that's a little too loud and doesn't quite match the frame it's coming out of. "That is definitely a drink-at-an-inn question. But here we are," she gestures to the camp site, then the sky. "Miles away from either thing. At least, until I raid people's bags for drinks tonight."
She laces the fingers of her hands together and rests her chin on them. "I think... I think I still haven't figured out the answer to that question. There is something very appealing about replacing everything to become as much a new person as I can. And I don't know that being more human would allow me to do that. But if I'm more machine, do I start losing what connections I've made?" She shrugs, looking uncomfortable. "Okay, maybe I do need a drink for this."
She doesn't seem unwilling to discuss further, but she does seem less at ease with the path she's taken the conversation down.
Panamax grins. "I remember you slugging Jarris. I will definitely warn you first."
Tavene laughs at this. It's as beautiful a sound mismatching her usual somber attitude as Ceri's laugh is awkwardly loud in her small frame. "He was so gracious about it, too." She shakes her head.
"You guess? I'm not sure what your Other is, but I am willing to attempt to heal her if you are concerned. We all need to be at our best if danger threatens. Do you mind if I...?" Panamax gestures toward her hair.
Her smile fades. "My Other. The other me. If I concentrate..." She closes her eyes, and another version of Tavene pops into existence for a moment. The Other looks angry for no particular reason, and disappears as quickly as she appears. "I can bring her around for a fight. And I see her all the time in mirrors, which... well, I don't like it. When I can't control seeing her, I mean."
"I don't even know if you could heal her. I'm not sure how real she is. Am I actually summoning different versions of myself that can die in battle?" She seems further unsettled.
When Panamax gestures to her hair, she looks confused. "Can you heal by touching hair?"
"At this point, with how often I find myself traveling, I really can't imagine living without it. Though I did feel about two seconds of guilt when I saw Tavene fiddling with sticks and getting leaves all stuck in her hair." He looks around at the interior of the tent.
Jarris opens a drawer on the desk and pulls out a tiny metal frame that fits a candle underneath a circular opening. He also pulls out a small pot, good for what seems to be about one cup of water. "If only I'd been able to get my hands on a deluxe version of this tent. The kitchen in that thing was a sight to behold." He lights a half melted candle underneath the frame, setting the pot on top of it and pouring water from a flask.
"I have a series of questions to ask which are more professional, and a series of statements which are less so. Which would you like first? After tea, of course."
He looks thoughtful, a slow smile curling his lips upwards. "That's a difficult choice. The obvious one is to hear the professional first. I'm also a student of delayed gratification, so... yes. Let's hear the professional questions first."
It only takes another minute for the water to heat to boiling. "Can't have the kitchen, but did find a quick-boil kettle at a pop-up market in Qi." The tea he steeps fills the tent with the scent of flowers and fruit. "I hope you don't mind something a little sweet."
Nalo watches Panamax and Ash with inordinate care and though she smiles at Maye when given a mug of lemonade, "A cool drink after trouping through the forest, it's a blessing." Holding the mug by the lip with her hand over the top, its very hard to tell that the liquid doesn't diminish when she raises it up to her lips.
Concern touches Nalo's eyes, opens her mouth, closes it, then pushes on despite her misgivings, "Yours were painful?"
Ceri shares a sympathy yawn with Nalo.
"No, not from a large family." She smiles, but the smile is hollow.
"Itsok" Nalo says, her words slurring together, "Da always said its about the connections you make. Sometimes its with people you've always know, but most of the time it's stranger turned family." A frown, "Dad probably came from a pretty horrible family, given how much he worked to make sure we had a good one under his roof."
Ceri chuckles at that. "But good if you just need to get some sleep. Me, I feel like my sleep is all over the place. Usually depends on whether or not I've taken or plugged in anything that might keep me up. Some nights, I sleep like the dead. Other nights, can't sleep at all."
A frown, grey eyes struggling to open.
She looks around at the rest of the wagon. "You don't need to worry about guarding anything just yet, if you want to take a nap." Her voice is more gentle than normal. "I'll guard the guard. I'll probably last until we settle down for the night."
And gives up the battle, pushing herself up against the wall behind her and pulling her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs and hands going into the sleeve of the opposite arm - should she lay her head down on her knees the only parts of her not touching the heavy cotton of her clothes is the long hair pulled back in a series of braids and her ears. Nalo turns her face towards Ceri, her voice a bare whisper,
Panamax watches Ash move his knee slowly. "I have bad news for you," Panamax says softly. "You're getting old."
Panamax turns and smiles at Maye. "I will see what I can do." Back to Ash. "Please pull your trouser leg up so that I can look directly."
As Panamax places his hand alongside Ash's bare knee, he heals.
Panamax nods to himself. "I hope that was helpful," he says to Ash.
Anson listens, nodding occasionally. "Have you told him that?"
"Disappointing isn't a word I'd associate with you."
After Panamax approaches him and says something, Anson coughs loudly.
"A cool drink after trouping through the forest, it's a blessing."
Maye smiles and her eyes crinkle heavily around the edges.
Panamax nods to himself. "I hope that was helpful," he says to Ash.
"It does feel better, thanks." He responds gruffly, pulling the legs of his trousers back down. "I know even a healer can't do much 'gainst aging."
It sure looks like Miyuki has eaten a lot of cookies over there in her chair. The plate seems emptier than when you guys showed up.
Is that a leaf growing off her cheek? ... and is it a trick of the light, or does it seem like her skin seems darker and more... bark-like?
It doesn't take long before the kids feel like enough time has passed that it's safe to run up into the wagon and continue playing there.
"Hey!" The reedy voice cries out again.
Since you're the only active PC at the wagon, I'm writing this from the point of view of someone who's camped out on the top of the wagon and can't see what's inside.
There's a high, piercing sound, a lot of commotion in the wagon below, and then a strange lurch, as though everyone in the vicinity is dropping down a shaft with nothing beneath their feet.
Concern touches Nalo's eyes, opens her mouth, closes it, then pushes on despite her misgivings, "Yours were painful?"
"They were very painful. The ah... person, installing them, wasn't big on proper medical procedures. I'm lucky this one healed so well." She draws her sleeves back down to her hands. "But it was a very long time ago." She says with a half smile.
Secret whispery things
"Don't worry. Just get some sleep." Ceri says with a smile.
"I'll make sure you don't zap any kids." The small woman puts a hand out to make contact with Nalo, hoping that if Nalo does send out any electricity on her way to sleeping, it'll ground through her first.
"Well, that's a relief." She turns to face him. "So I'm not sure I'd count that cave as a second date. Too many people around. We'll have to figure out something a little more intimate for the next one." She cocks her head. "But I did notice that we have similar, ah... traits." She gestures to her eyes. With a turn of her head, there's that copper glimmer deep within them again.
"Were you born with them? Had them installed? Fell onto someone's workshop table face first?"
Nalo shakes her head, "Nothing so exciting. We got hired on a job that was underground, it hadn't quite felt like three days." A shrug, "Not 'til the end anyway, but I've been known to get caught up in my work."
"Mm, makes sense." His hair glints a dark red in the fire light of the camps around them. "What kind of work interests you? The group you arrived with seems full of capable folks."
He pulls a bit of bread out of his bag, and the faint smell of cinnamon wafts towards her with the motion. He offers some to her, then continues whether or not she takes a piece.
Panamax turns to Maye. "You're okay?"
...and he slowly continues the turn to Miyuki. "You look a little off -- are you okay?"
Panamax gives Anson a concerned look at the cough.
Panamax pauses, like he's going to say something more, but instead shakes his head and smiles.
"Just fine, dear. Thank you." Maye replies absently, stroking the little paw of her brendil.
"Oh," Miyuki looks embarrassed. "These are just really good. I don't think I've ever had cookies this tasty before."
She's hardly finished with the sentence before she's got another cookie in her hand and heading straight to her mouth.
"Where are you even fitting all of those?" Zoa teases.
"My dessert stomach. Don't you have one of those?" Miyuki responds around a bite of cookie.
"Gods, I wish. I eat more than one cookie and I swear I gain ten pounds." She pats her own stomach, which is not quite as flat as Miyuki's. "Although I will say, if ever there was a cookie to gain weight for, it would be these."
Maye beams at the compliments, and Ash makes a hmph noise.
Okay, something is definitely off about Miyuki. A few leaves have sprouted from her face, and she's itching at them absentmindedly as she chews on another cookie.
"Miyuki, put the cookie down." Panamax gets to his feet.
"Maye," Panamax tips his head to each person in turn as he mentions their name, "Ash, Oota. This needs to stop now."
"I'm asking nicely."
Nalo looks at Panamax then looks around the room. "I knew this was all bad."
She looks at Maye, "And reverse what was done as well."
Anson is quiet for a moment or two, and asks, not unkindly, "So what precisely do you want from me? I talk to machines, Nalo. I don't like ambiguity or inference."
Panamax dips his head to Anson and leaves.
"It wasn't all bad," Panamax says quietly to Nalo as the room gets tense. "We got to stretch our legs on the walk over here."
Nalo turns her head with a half smile, whispers, then turns back to face her knees.
She turns her head back to her kness, "I'm only dangerous skin to skin."
Miyuki looks startled, dropping the cookie onto the plate. "Okay, but..." her voice sounds strange and raspy. In the seconds that pass, more flora has grown from her hands and face.
"Ah, hells," Mathias says, getting to his feet and moving to help Miyuki stand. He puts himself protectively in front of her, as though he can stop what she's already ingested by putting himself between the old folks and the young woman.
Maye looks at a loss for a moment, but then the three freeze in place. Ash, Maye, and Oota.
"Little oness," a raspy voice comes from Ash's unmoving mouth. "Little clever treasures."
Zoa unsheathes two daggers, and steps towards the unmoving old man.
"As the lady said," she gestures to Nalo, "undo it. This is the last time we ask before we make a mess of your cottage."
Panamax frowns.
The sensation of dropping intensifies, and at least one person throws up loudly inside the wagon. Almost without fanfare, the entire wagon is then upside down.
"What the f+*~?" Ceri asks, laying flat and clinging to the top of the wagon.
Once the falling sensation disappears, everything feels back to normal. It's just that the sky is beneath you, the forest is growing downwards, and the road makes up your ceiling.
Kids are crying in the wagon, and Jarris can be heard trying to calm everyone down.
"I told you not to touch it!" The man yells.
Tavene crouches on what is currently the ceiling, closing her eyes and summoning a second version of herself into view.
Nothing comes to mind that would explain what you're experiencing. However, you strongly suspect there's numenera at work here. And the raspy voice of whatever is speaking through Ash's mouth sounds similar to the rasp in Miyuki's voice - something sort of plant-like.
With a little pop, the scene around you disappears like a soap bubble. You're all standing in the same clearing, with a series of well manicured hedge sculptures standing where you saw them before. Only now it's plain to see that they were all sculptures of people. Miyuki looks halfway there herself, and seems unable to move her feet.
The creature that's replaced the cozy home scene is around the same height as Mathias. The wide-faced flowerlike plant has bright scarlet petals and it smells wonderful from where you're all standing. The wind isn't blowing, but the flowers tremble in a way that entices you to stick your nose in them.
You notice the plant seems to be wearing a belt, which is a very odd thing for a plant to wear.
"Little treasures," it rasps again, mouth opening to reveal a lot of wicked, thorn-like teeth, "you could stay here, in my garden. You'd be happy here."
"I'm really not a stay in one place kind of girl." Nalo says even as she evaluates the creature, eyes lingering on something odd at its middle.
She chuckles. "Destiny." The word sounds unpleasant in her mouth. "No, we make our own, and all that. But I think we both would agree that there's no place we shouldn't go." She smiles and waggles her eyebrows. "When you talk to machines, what are you listening for?"
She rolls up her sleeves, and several metal somethings glint in the firelight.
Whispery things
Ceri slides her hand away, and looks a little embarrassed. "Right, of course. Makes sense. Either way, my eyes are open and out!"
Given that you carry around a bestiary, you do kind of recognize this creature as possibly being a jasmeris. They typically are the eat first, ask questions later variety of monster, with toxins in its flowers that can dissolve flesh from the inside out.
It's strange to you that it's here, cultivating a living garden of people. Even stranger that it is, as you observed, wearing a belt.
"A ssshame," it rasps, and several viney arms unfold with thorned finger-leaves on the ends. At the same time, gorgeous petals unfold further still, a dazzling crimson color with bright yellow at their centers. It advances towards the group.
Nalo lights her right hand up with electricity and darts in towards the creature.
But the overt attack is only a feint, her left hand going for the belt at the creature's waist, trying to find the unlock mechanism to snatch it away.
He slides puts the patch along onto Miyuki's neck until it sticks, and activates it.
She looks surprised at his offer. "I... don't think I would mind that so much." She says with a slow half smile. Then the smile slips away. "I was thinking of parting ways with the group in Kordech. Finding another job, maybe." She looks slightly uncomfortable.
"Why?" he says with a quizzical frown.
Kilo arranges to take shifts with Tavene and whoever else volunteers to act as guards during the night. When not on duty he will likely put himself a bit away from the caravan in a leaf shelter or something similar(where available) or his tent (if needed).
A small woman with a bright and earnest smile approaches Tavene and Kilo on the first night the caravan makes camp. Her hair is raven black, straight as an arrow, and brushes gently against her shoulders. "You two look like people I've trained with!" She says, excitement evident in her voice. She's wearing totally new, and clearly untested, leather armor, and her sword looks like it might be one step up from a piece of wood used for training. "This is only the second time I've been in a wagon like this, and I'm really enjoying the trip so far. Where are you guys from? Where are you going?"
She drops down next to them and focuses her full attention on their responses.
Kilo acknowledges her presence with a slight nod. "Around." he says, "Not so good with names" a slight pause, "and Kordech I believe?" he looks to Tavene for confirmation, then following a longer pause he adds, "farther out, I guess I'm looking for a Master of the 5th Ring." He turns to face the newcomer and holds out a hand, "I'm Kilo, this is Tavene..and you are?"
Kilo rushes in drawing two short blades and slicing deeply into the plant creature.
After leaving Anson, Panamax looks for Nalo. "Hello," he says.
He rattles through the questions in a measured pace, as though this is something he has asked before.
Dreams are thoughts you cannot control.
Panamax agrees most with this assessment.
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream. Usually they are frightening, sometimes they are sad or harrowing.
I will make arrangements with someone else to bring you if I die. Ceri or Nalo seem the most likely. Panamax sends mental images of each, along with the memories of Nalo handing over the container, and the expression on Ceri's face when she spoke with Esha in her head.
Do you have a preference between them?
Panamax nods thoughtfully. "It's a question I ask myself sometimes. As we converge gradually toward Godhood, what makes us us anymore? I think we have fodder for a series of drinks."
Panamax stretches. A long, full-body stretch. "And I am available for this drunken conversation when we get where we are going." He holds up a hand and ticks off fingers. "Available for non-drunken conversation. Available for healing. Available for companionable silences." He laughs silently, looking at his hand with four fingers curled and one remaining straight. "Although you wouldn't know it lately."
"I will attempt to heal her if I see her injured," Panamax says. "And then I suppose we will know. Can you talk to her? Or does she only fight?"
Panamax puts his hands back at his sides. "You have leaves in your hair," he says, a small smile across his lips. "I was offering to take them out. Did you want more healing?"
He shakes his head. "I am full of questions tonight. I don't mean to wear you down with them. I do have one last question for you -- if you're up for it."
"You are smarter than I am," Panamax says. "In most of my travels, I slept in the open under the stars." Panamax sighs. "Stars don't keep the rain off."
Panamax smiles at the scent of flowers and fruit. "Sweet is good," he says, taking a sip. "Ahhh."
He takes a moment to savor the tea.
"As your healer, I would like to know if there is anything unusual or nonstandard about your body that I should know about. Secondarily, since my healing works via skin contact, are there any places -- apart from the customary -- that you would rather not be touched?"
Panamax raises an eyebrow and takes another sip of tea.
But she focuses on his words, and her voice is quiet with a edge of hope. "That spark, its my subconcious's way of telling me 'Here is something you should notice'." She pulls her bottom lip into her mouth for a moment, "So I watched you. And I like the person I saw, even if I know I've only seen the surface."
"I want to get to know you better," her head cocks to the side ever so slightly, "regardless of anything else that I daydreamed, I do think we'd make good friends."
She bites on her bottom lip her eyes grey eyes darkening as she takes in the lines of face, "A few days ago," a deep breath, "a few days ago I'd hoped that if we did there would be something," she blushes, "more intimate."
She shakes her head, "But I don't become someone's friend in the hope that their current relationship burns out, because that's just creepy."
"If not, would you like my help hunting them down?" Her mouth twitches on the like but it she doesn't seem to notice.
Re Empty Sanctum
re Master of the 5th ring
*down 4 in int pool, take action refresh on day 2
and 10 min refresh in the late afternoon
After leaving Anson, Panamax looks for Nalo. "Hello," he says.
Nalo looks a little on edge when Panamax finds her, walking back and forth, but she stops, listening to Panamax, her brow furrowing. "That would depend on how your healing works."
A shrug, "I know you healed yourself and Ceri on the last job, but the only other time I've seen you use your power, you" she notices the kids nearby and drops her voice to not be overheard by them, shrugging once while she speaks
Panamax shrugs expansively. He keeps his voice lowered.
Panamax holds up a hand and starts ticking off fingers. "Me, Ceri, Sherine, Tavene, the pirate who I injured."
"You are not the only one to express reservations."
He puts his hand back down by his side. He starts to say something else, then stops. Waits for a reply.
Panamax does make a point of seeking out Sherine and Kilo while on the road as well --
"I need to apologize for not asking this question before healing you the other night, but my enthusiasm ran ahead of my manners. As a healer, is there anything nonstandard or unusual about your body that I should know? And -- since my healing abilities work via touch, is there anywhere -- apart from the customary places -- that you would prefer not to be touched?"
Panamax runs smoothly through the questions, as though he has asked them before.
"Hello," he says. "I know we haven't really spoken. But I have an odd yet possibly relevant personal question to ask. As a healer, is there anything nonstandard or unusual about your body that I should know? And -- since my healing abilities work via skin-to-skin touch, is there anywhere -- apart from the customary places -- that you would prefer not to be touched?"
Panamax runs smoothly through the questions. He has clearly asked these before.
Panamax shrugs expansively. He keeps his voice lowered.
Nalo smiles at the androgynous healer, shrugs, shakes her head. A pause and then her grin goes wider. A wince.
A pause and then a grin, "But if it gets to the point where the other choice is death, then you have my permission." A wince, "But if it gets to that point, then touching me could be dangerous, if I come out of unconsciousness not knowing who is touching me."
"Unless you can heal through cotton. Cotton is a pretty good insulator."
Panamax looks for a quiet moment when there aren't others around.
"I need to apologize for not asking this question before healing you the other night, but my enthusiasm ran ahead of my manners. As a healer, is there anything nonstandard or unusual about your body that I should know? And -- since my healing abilities work via touch, is there anywhere -- apart from the customary places -- that you would prefer not to be touched?"
Panamax runs smoothly through the questions, as though he has asked them before.
Sherine blinks at the unexpected stream of questions. "Um," she says, unhelpfully.
She pauses to collect her thoughts.
"Let's see. Bog-standard body plan. I never got into that whole install-numenera-to-get-special-abilities craze. And just the normal no-touch zones. At least, no one has given me side-eye for where I don't want to be touched. So I guess I'm normal in that respect?"
On the first night the group sets up camp outside the wagons, a tall woman with thick dark hair that falls in gentle curls approaches Sherine. She wears a blouse of crimson silk with matching pants that look completely inappropriate for traveling on a dusty road.
"Hello, lovely," she says, voice smooth and contralto. "I'm Zoa Ghazizaden. What brings you on this epic wagon ride east?"
"Oh, hello!" replies Sherine, brightly. "What brings me? Probably the same as everyone else. Pretty lights. Seeking Knowledge Woman Was Not Meant To Know. Good conversation. Shins. A good cup of coffess. Buildings."
Nalo smiles at the androgynous healer, shrugs, shakes her head. A pause and then her grin goes wider. A wince.
Panamax gives Nalo an odd look, tipping his head to the side like a bird.
"Not sure I could."
He nods at Nalo's warning. "I will take that chance if you're dying. And I am available even if you're not."
Panamax grasps his forearms with his opposite hands and slides the hands together until they're clasped. "The healing only works skin-on-skin. The destructive stuff I can do at a distance."
A flash of grin and a raised eyebrow. "I'll let you know if I figure out how to heal through cotton. But if you kill me by accident, I trust you will continue to show Esha around the Ninth World."
"Better deal for me."
Panamax thinks for a minute. "I know that I can heal a fractured ovipositor, should any of our number happen to grow one."
He lapses into companionable silence after this observation.
Anson pokes his head into the wagon. "I don't know what it is, but stop touching it!"
"I know that I can heal a fractured ovipositor, should any of our number happen to grow one."
Sherine enjoys the companionable silence for a minute or two.
"Ovipositor? I'm sure there's a story there you're not telling me."
Panamax gives Nalo an odd look, tipping his head to the side like a bird.
Nalo shrugs, speaks then looks surprised.
"Would they want me shepherding them around if something were to happen to you?" Nalo asks, "I mean other than them threatening the group and then thanking us, I've not met them at all."
"She's the kind of person I'm drawn to as well, interested in the world we live in and excited to find out new things." Something else remains unsaid, a worry which Nalo's generally expressive face doesn't hide.
In response to Panamax showing the faces of the two women, Esha is silent for a moment. Then he plays back a strange series of images; Ceri's face, a brick wall, a fortress, and a brief and overwhelming feeling of sadness.
This one has a sad mind
I do not really know the other
A longer pause.
I prefer one who will talk to me like you do
Tavene also offers her hand after confirming their destination is Kordech, and Miyuki shakes both Glaive's hands with a surprisingly firm grip for her size. "I'm Miyuki Azuma!" She sits down without being invited, eyes wide. "I haven't been to Kordech yet. It's why I'm with the caravan. I have a lot to catch up on, and traveling seems like the best way to do it."
He smiles warmly at Nalo's answer. "And have you? Found things no one else has seen before?"
Zoa nods along with Sherine's answers until the last one. "Buildings? Are you a student of architecture? Most students I meet are of the stuffy, robe wearing variety." She shifts slightly, and the light scent of night blooming jasmine washes over Sherine and disappears almost as quickly as it arrived.
Ceri looks over the healer as though seeing him for the first time. "You would know all about Godhood, wouldn't you, Mister Starts-A-Cult?" She grins. "I may take advantage of your availability. I have a lot going on in here," she taps her head, "and don't do a lot of sleeping. So a drunken night of discussing Godhood it is!"
"But I am curious, do you get any sort of sense of a person when you heal them? Any sort of impressions, hearing their heartbeat, anything like that?"
"Oh, these weren't by choice," she says, a small frown appearing on her face for a moment. She offers her arm out to him. "I'm curious. Never had anyone try to listen to the parts of me that weren't words coming out of my mouth. Would you be willing to ah... see what you feel, or hear?"
Further up her arm, there's a strip of metal about two inches long embedded under the skin, with only a tiny bit of the surface showing. Its purpose doesn't look as obvious as the port at her wrist, and her skin healed smoothly around the implant.
It's also pretty clear she's become slightly uncomfortable exposing as much skin as she is, but she looks at Anson directly without flinching away.
Ceri looks surprised; opening her mouth, then closing it without a response. "He did not," she says, a frown wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows. "And honestly, I wouldn't say no to help in hunting him down. I haven't actively been looking for him, but I do ask about him in every town, holdfast, or city I visit."
She smiles, and it's somewhere between genuine warmth and a grimace. "Thank you."
She gestures at the large group they're surrounded by. "Much like every other large group I've ever found myself in, I don't feel like I quite fit in here." She smiles a little then. "Although maybe that won't change. Maybe there won't ever be a large group I fit in with."
"I can talk to her. Or at least, she talks to me. The one I summon seems to be an exact copy, but the ones I see in mirrors... they're different. I can't talk to them, but I hear them sometimes."
After his offer to remove the leaves, her eyes go wide and she lets out an embarrassed "Oh!" She reaches to feel for them and pull them out, then pauses. "Sure, sorry, you can help. Or I can do it, since I'm already doing it." She blushes as she becomes more awkward.
"Anyway." A small cough. The leaves remain in her hair.
"I'm not worn down, don't worry. I'm made of sterner stuff." She smiles. "What's your other question?"
"Smarter? I don't know about that. More prissy, certainly." He waves at the roof of the tent, which is clear but showing a cloudy sky. "There is something to be said for seeing actual stars and skies at night. But while this slightly obscures the view, to your point, I don't get rained on at night."
At the professional question, Jarris does his best to keep a straight face. "Nonstandard or unusual huh? No, not to my knowledge." He pats himself down.
"And no. I think any exposed skin is fair game if I need to be healed." He sips his tea and maintains steady eye contact.
A pause, "I don't share secrets that belong to other people, if you want to talk instead of inundating your mind with fun sidetrips." Gentle, with no judgement.
At making eye contact with Panamax, Mathias gives a friendly wave. "Does he have or do something that you read about in old books?" He looks a little more curiously at the other man. "Or is he something more than he appears?"
"I appreciate that." She says with a nod. "Fun sidetrips? Do you mean the numenera I seek out?" If Nalo confirms, she goes on. "I try to be careful about not going too overboard. I recognize that at a certain point, escaping reality or building a new one isn't necessarily all that healthy."
She shrugs. "But there are a lot of interesting things out there, and like we sort of discussed before... if I can become someone other than what I was, ah... formed into, so much the better."
And he listens.