Illithia's page

"...oh, I think I am going to end up with some new fractures before this is all over." Anthony murmurs nervously as he watches the halfling's appearance shift.

As Illthia continues to flex, the muscles continue to expand like a balloon blowing up, then they suddenly pop! A cloud of butterflies erupts from the popped muscles and flies all round the SIM room, though if they touch anything they erupt into tingly little sparkles. At the centre of the over-the-top display, the halfling has struck a heroic pose, clearly stifling giggles.

A shorter-than-average halfling swaggers her way into tbe competition room, red tattoos spidered all over her skin in seemingly random patterns. She looks around a waves at a mock crowd, flexing a little for them. As she flexes, her muscles seem to grow to a somewhat ridiculous size!

"Awww yeah! Make way for the pain train gang! Gang of one!"

"Ace" wrote:

Ace reverts back to his regular form, and all humor is gone from him. "I'm pretty confident that if this bastard falls for the bait, he's ours. I have several tricks up my sleeve, the least of which is protecting you and Keme via Mind Blank. If we can find scrolls of them, I can cast it on ya. That should either render you immune to whatever tricks he uses against his victims, or at least make you far more resistant to them."

"It's getting them to take the bait that worries me," Keme said, agreeing with Illithia's concern, and trying not to get too distracted by the butterflies. It had been a really good illusion. "We may want those scrolls sooner rather than later. I don't want the plan spoiled because our mystery murderer read our minds and knows we're trying to trick them."

"And I suppose I don't need a boyfriend in the group if it's going to be too hard. I'll just hang around you guys, maybe he'll take the bait anyway." While she's speaking, a pair of butterflies resting on top of Keme's head takes off, one land on Keme's nose and the other on Ace's. Knowing that they are illusory only helps the tickling a little. She grins unabashedly at her handiwork.

"Let's get us some scrolls then. Assuming we can find some."

"Ace" wrote:

Ace chuckles at the halfling's antics "Fine, fine how about pink?" And the green spikes are replaced by a bright neon pink mohawk "Or maybe blue?" which then becomes electric blue dreads. "Also, I would totally be pretending to be your boyfriend. I'm quite the accomplished actor" He adds with mock flair.

"If none of those suit you, perhaps I can just be a loyal, yappy companion, frolicking at your heels, and Keme can be you date". Suddenly, the male halfling is gone, replaced by a small puppy, happily wagging its tail and barking.

*facepalm*

"Someone just shoot me now."

A flick and twist of Illithia’s wrist and a sharp movement of her fingers conjures forth what appears to be a Caster into her hands. Immediately Illithia points the weapon at Keme, and with a startling bang she fires. Keme is struck a shell which harmlessly explodes into a few dozen butterflies. While most of the butterflies vanish into dust and air shortly after coming into existence, a few settle atop Keme’s head, wings slowly opening and closing. Illthia drops the ‘weapon’ and it too is gone before it hits the floor, though the butterflies are still conspicuously present. Illithia smirks at her handi-work as a pulse of purple runs all through her inked skin.

When she speaks again her voice is decidedly more serious than her expression would have you believe: ”I just want the bait to work. We’re only going to get once chance at it before whoever this is knows that we’re onto them.”

Ace abruptly changes shape, becoming a male hafling with spiky neon green hair, "Will this do? Or do you prefer someone taller?" He quips.

"Pfft, it'll be hard to explain fitting into you guys and your friends if I'm nailing someone who doesn't fit either. Besides, I thought you had a girlfriend?" Illithia smarms right back at Ace, still grinning a little too much as muted colours of purple and yellow swirl through her tattoos.

"Besides, green hair is totally blegh." she says, and proceeds to stick her tongue out.

"The only real issue I see is guaranteeing our murderer takes the bait. As long as we can make sure he/she/it shows up and does his thing, I will do mine, and make sure he's taken care of, once and for all"

Illithia returns the handshake, though her hand is considerably smaller than Ace's given her stature.

I already told her she definitely doesn't have to do this," he said, putting his hands up to forestall the obvious arguments.

She just rolls her eyes and taps her feet, wanting the conversation to quickly skip past this.

As the conversation moves forward, Illithia's ink gently swirls in a muted purple in with the soft yellow colour. She's grinning just a little too much for the serious nature of the discussion.

"Y'know, part of him taking the bait means that I might need a boyfriend from your group of friends, since apparently they're picking on you guys or something. I'll let you guys worry about setting the trap, but I need a date if I'm going to be bait."

"You're right. Fear is a healthy response for something like this. And you don't have to do this. It's okay to change your mind."

"Uh...not really sure about anyone's relationship status here....Ace has a girlfriend....sort of...it's complicated. I don't know. Ace is more into the social stuff than I have been. Let's start there."

"Hey, I gotta earn my keep around here don't I? I'm not a dragon or super-powered like the ones around here who always save the day, so I gotta do what I can." Again, Illithia's dancing around the issue, downplaying her own fear. It's pretty easy to see through, even without the colour-changing ink patterning her skin. She pushes herself back up to a sitting position on the bed, accidently knocking a book and causing a small avalanche of stuff to tumble off the bed.

She blushes again momentarily and grins sheepishly. "Whoops."

"Alright, let's go see this Ace guy then. No use in sitting around."

"The first attack happened during the attack on the school when the wards were down. The second two....we don't know how he does it exactly, but somehow he lured the second victim off of school grounds. She didn't even remember walking into the woods. We can't ask the third victim, but she was also found off school grounds, so I'm assuming that the killer was somehow able to lure her outside the wards as well. Whoever or whatever he is, he's careful not to commit violence inside the wards. And we can't maintain a constant watch outside the wards. I asked. Security systems are still recovering from the attack."

"...Are you sure you're okay with this? You seemed....uncomfortable? I'm sorry, I haven't quite figured out what yellow means...."

"Traitors." Illithia mutters under her breath, raising a inked hand to see the tattoo having shifted to the muted yellow colour.

"Yellow is usually fear, or panic, or something like that." Illithia says, still staring up at the ceiling and trying overly hard to seem brazen about it. "That's alright though. You should be worried if I wasn't nervous about something like this, right? Haha."

Yeah, that was a pretty forced laugh.

She tries to act like it's nothing though, moving straight on from the topic. "Alright, so who's the group of friends and are there are available (and preferably handsome) guys I could go start hitting on?"

Keme grimaced. "Like it's a terrible idea, but may be the only way we'll ever cath this guy. But picking the right bait is tricky. He or she or it or whatever has very specific criteria for victims. Always female. Always with either a boyfriend or in the one case very close male friend. The victims are fed a mental image of the boyfrend killing them. The killer is able to completely psychically erase himself from their minds. And I suspect the killer is hunting within a particular...

Illithia looks down at herself and grins. "Female, check." then back up at Keme, her grin widening ever so slightly. "Boyfriend, I can fake that no problem, just point me at the right people, I can mingle and fit in. Well, probably." There's a subtle but noticeable shift in the pigment of her tattoos, which have been flickering between the embarassed pink and a neutral black colour. A bit of dark yellow is creeping in.

Illithia flops once again so that she's laying down watching the ceiling. "How's this dude getting past the wards? Do we know? Shouldn't they trigger as soon as he tries to hurt someone?"

Keme smiled in spite of himself. "Alright. Nice illusions, by the way," he said, closing the door behind him. "Is that what you do? Illusion magics?"

Illithia smiles and "mmhmm"s affrimatively. "They're my favourite and what I'm best at. Gnomish blood or something maybe."

Keme grinned and then found a comfortable spot to sit. Piles of clothes always made good cushions. Although it was a lot less comfy trying to sit like this in human form. But for some reason he found himself reluctant to switch to his fox form at the moment. Fox form was good for observing, but maybe not as great for talking.

"I'm probably making a big mistake sharing any of this stuff with someone I don't really even know," he said, running a hand through his hair. "But we're pretty much just chasing our tails right now anyways. I'm tired of always finding myself a few steps behind this guy. We need to find another way of finding him," he said, his frustration coming to the surface.

Illithia herself flop-sits onto the nearby bed, her previous smile having faded away. "Yeah, you're probs right."

There's a brief pause, punctuated by the sound of something falling over in the closet and apparently causing a mini-junkslide, if the sound is to be trusted. Illithia winces and waits for the noise to abate before carrying on the conversation.

"So, how do you feel about bait?"

"Heh. And here I thought my room was messy. Obviously I didn't fully understand what the word meant. I bow to your greater mastery of the untidy arts," he said giving her a mock bow.

There's a subtle tracing in the air of her fingers and suddenly, a ridiculously extravagant illusory gown appears, complete with scepter and tiara. Illithia can't help but give a small smirk. There's shift in her tone of voice, adopting a mock-snooty tone. "Tut tut, I'm afraid I am not taking apprentices at the moment." Illy replies, drawing herself up to her full height (which means that Keme is still quite a bit taller than her even in his bow).

"But I shall, like, keep your deference in mind and stuff. Come on in and let's chat."

Keme shrugged. He wasn't really comfortable with the flirty attitude from a halfling, but he didn't really have any idea how to say so without being offensive. Besides, he certainly had no right to be telling anyone that they seemed like a child to him. Without Hope's interference, he would still be basically a toddler. Making him grow up too fast (literally) was just one of the many ways she had kept him isolated.

"I'm a kitsune with five tails. That means I have a fair amount of magic I can use. But mostly I just find information. No amount of magic can make up for a lack of knowledge and intelligence. If you do it right, you hardly ever need magic at all. That's...why I left home. They always wanted me to solve their problems for them. And it was usually things they could do themselves if they just thought about it. It was bad for them and bad for me."

"What about you? What brought you to Avalon?"

"Oh you know, like, the usual. Magical powers awoke at the wrong time kinda dealie." Illithia says in an attempt to stick to her casual demeanor, though there's a slight quiver in her voice and a small but noticeable shift in the pigment of her tattoos.

The crack in the facade is momentary though, and she's back to being bubbly. "But anyways, you forget that magic is fun. Doesn't have to be a super duper serious thing. But I can probably thank Avalon for that mentality. At least nobody ever tried to make me fix-- oh hey, my room is actually where I left it this morning, that's a first."

Illithia steps up to the door and pauses with her hand on the knob. There's a brief flash of brilliant pink across her. She spins and holds up a finger. "One sec!"

With a rapid opening and shutting of the door, the halfling disappears into the room. There's about a minute of intense shuffling, slamming, and general re-arranging.

When the door opens again, there Illy stands with a somewhat sheepish look on her face. The room still looks pretty messy, clothing all over the floor, with papers and scrolls scattered all over the desk, so it's hard to imagine what it was like before. "Hey, solike, come on in. Sorry 'bout that."

"I'm Keme. Thanks for the help with the cart. I, uh.....haven't had much chance to interact with many of the other students during my time here. Are you new? Or did I just never run into you before?"

"Oh, I've been here a while." she says, idly waving a hand as the starts at a trot so that Keme doesn't have to shorten his strides for her sake. "Like, a year and some change maybe. School's pretty big though, and getting bigger all the time, so it's no surprise we missed each other."

"So is bein' foxy your only power?" Illithia asks in a vaguely flirty way, though something tells Keme that it's probably just her MO.

They're making pretty good progress towards the dorms and will be there in short order.

"Yeah. Not the big something. Someone took advantage of the chaos to attack a girl. And ever since they've been luring girls off campus to attack them. Whoever is doing this is some kind of telepath. They give their victims false memories. I've been trying to find them, but so far....well, we're really short on clues. This person is really good at covering their tracks. Just....don't go telling the entire student body or anything, okay? Panic won't help us catch this person. But a fresh perspective might. If you really do want to help."

Illithia blinked and looked around at the hallway, her smirk becoming genuine again for just a moment. "Might not be the best place to chat, then." Once again, she sticks out her tongue at Keme, though it's obvious her heart isn't really in it. "And of course I want to help. Duh. Just cause I don't take myself too seriously doesn't mean there aren't things that should be taken seriously."

Illithia glances at the cart that Keme was hauling and casts a quick spell, and the cart shortly begins to move on it's own. (Invisible Servant)

"We should, like, go to my room to talk then. My roommate won't mind." Illithia says off-handedly, "Name's Illithia by the way, but you can call me Illy if you like."

"So much fun," he said dryly as he lifted the celestial fox off his head and set it down. "I already feel like I'm interacting with my age group back home," he added, rolling his eyes. Not that this girl would know that his age group was the kitsune equivalent of toddlers. His faster aging had made for a very lonely childhood. "Guess I'll just have to stick to the drama. Saving the world might not be my problem anymore, but finding the person who hurt my friend still is. So unless you think investigations are fun, then you'll just have to find someone else to torment."

Illthia dismissed the fox with a wave of her hand and the summoned creature returned to the aether. The purple colour of her ink drains into black over the course of a few seconds. There's a moment of hesitation where her bemused expression fades somewhat, but it returns. Being the halfling equivalent of a mood ring makes hiding your emotions kinda hard, but she tries anyway, playing the role of the badass who doesn't give a crap.

"Well, if you're gonna, like, actually do something instead of whining, I'm in. This about what happened on the weekend?"

He looked at her in stunned disbelief. "How new are you? That was last week's quota. This week just got started. So far at least one possible apocalyptic event that folks are attemtping to avert. And if the aschen are running around there might be two. Today. That I know of. And that's just potential apocalypse, not just garden variety disaster. We've got some of that going on too." He shook his head. "Maybe we've all been doing too good a job at hiding all this crap.......I really should talk to somebody about that.....or not.....it's.....probably not my responsibility anymore.....huh. That's just......weird," he said, his voice trailing off as the reality of not actually being on call if the world needed saving finally started to sink in. "Is this what normal feels like? I'm not sure I like it."

Illithia just rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out at Keme. "Don't be such a drama queen. The multiverse has survived this long, I'm sure it'll survive a while longer. And I'm pretty sure being able to turn into a fox with five-tails precludes you from being "normal"." The word normal comes complete with air quotes!

She tilts her head to the side slightly and the celestial fox makes a fantastic leap and lands square on top on Keme's noggin, doing it's best to balance there. "So like, are you gonna be a drama-llama or are we gonna find something fun to do?"

The five tailed fox quickly transforms back into a teenage boy, stepping back and putting his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Hey, now, no need to fight. I wasn't trying to hurt you. Just stop you from making an error in judgment. I know who those things work for and you don't really want to interfere if they're on one of her errands."

The conjured celestial fox bounds forwards and begins to playfully nip at Keme's heels, bouncing in circles.

Meanwhile, Illithia smirked. "Ohhh riiiight. I'm sure the whole school is doomed without the help of that demon. I'm pretty sure we hit our quota for disasters for the week already anyway."

Keme abandons the carts with an exasperated sigh. That was one of Ephebe's demons. So either it was causing trouble or the fate of the world was at stake. Or both. They had, in his observation, a stunning ability to multitask in that regard. He transformed into fox form and pounced on Illithia before she could pounce on the aschen.

There's a slightly girlish shriek as the predator becomes the prey. Keme tackles the tattoo'd halfling to the ground with ease, her size working against her in this regard. The tattoos adorning her skin instantly flash from purple to a bright yellow colour.

She rolls and scrambles back to her feet, turning to face her attacker.

Seeing the fox (many-tailed, yes?) but not making the connection with Keme, she grins (her tattoos flowing back to the purple colour) and twists her hands, casting a spell and conjuring forth her a Celestial fox, which will pounce on the kitsune if given the chance.

Another aschen appears in front of Ryo's children. "Need to borrow something. For mistress," it added, trying to look cute.

Illithia cranes her neck to look back at the screechy sound of an aschen's voice. She grins and glances back at Keme before jumping up and off the cart and moving to sneak up on the demonic thing harassing the children...

There's a sly grin on her face.

Once everyone had a chance to grab some lunch, Keme left again, only this time he had to steer the unwieldy train of hovercarts by himself. It was both bad and good that they were also now much lighter.

Feel free to have anyone who wishes to hear the clatter as he attempts to steer this mess through the halls.

Let's add another to this mess too, since I can see Ryo's kids making this go downhill very quickly.

After a particularily bad bang, Keme would look back up to see the figure of a halfling teenager apparently lounging on one of the cleaner carts, one eye closed with her hands folded neatly behind her head. She looks back at Keme from her relaxed position (though, honestly, the cart doesn't look at all comfortable or easy to ride given the rough treatment).

"HEY!" the girl, tattoo'd head to tail in bright purple ink, calls back to the frustrated Keme. "Try to keep it down, alright?! Some of us are trying to nap!"

Studying her conversation partner at length, it's clear Anahita's not sure what's going on at this point-- or more importantly, lost any semblance of keeping her expression devoid of ...well, expressing.

"I ... you are confusing me. I asked what plans you might have when the sun sets. If--" She pauses and seems to consider those words. Were just prior disbelief and confusion, then calm and stillness.

Looking away now, towards the green of the surrounding trees, she takes a few moments to consider that, then back again.

"I do not understand your intentions in this conversation now and clearly I have failed to socialize properly, again. I will find you again at another time, please excuse me. Thank you for your company, Illithia. Be well." As she moves to stand, the light glint of light against her chain, and shift of white cotton, she moves to take a step and vanishes as usual. A lone ladybug flutters in and lands atop her tray near the table, the hint of dew and sunshine against grass remains.

"Errr... whoops." Illithia says aloud, to nobody but herself. She gently places a finger on the plate in front of the lady bug, and lifts it carefully up to her nose. A hint of a smile crosses her features, and she lets the bug crawl off onto the bench. "That probably could've gone better."

Anahita looks to say something, then shuts her mouth after a moment, a slight flurry of emotion behind the expression of the dark skinned Keleshite.

"I apologize for pursuing the topics. I will refrain in the future. Do you have plans for this evening?"

She looks down at her empty tray and plate of sushi, then back up. Any indication of hearing voices and such elsewhere non-existent at this time.

"Pfft, don't hold yourself back just cause I can't keep up. That's not way to do things." she said with a dismissive wave of her hand as another french fry met their doom. "I'm guessing with that accent that common isn't your first language. Maybe try to dumb it down a bit for lil' old me?" Illithia continued mischeiviously, playing her words up a bit with a finger playing absently with her lip in a classic 'airhead' manuveur. Her colouration has shifted back to that pleasantly playful purple pigment.

Anahita sits and listens to the advice provided by the diminutive female, along with studying her as the pink shift occurs and reverts to match appropriate to her current emotions. There's clearly curiosity at the transition of colors, and most likely interest at the underlining reasoning. Might as well put a closed box in a room with a light on it, Anahita's attention stays focused currently by the visual.

When she does speak, it's after a few moments of thought and a prolonged blink that seems to cut off the visual flow for the raven color, thick waves, haired young woman.

"My devotion is to no deity, to be clear. Though, I believe I understand the purpose of your tale and advice offered. I humbly disagree with you on that point, though. I would like to meet this priest, share of his trials and delights, to learn more of what you have shared. As for the latter question-- it was more to initiate an abstract conversation of whether or not you actually would recognize another plane, while still alive. I often wonder if the bounds of mortality limit perceptions. I do not believe they do, so it amazes me when I meet people who appear to be limited. Imagine for a moment, anywhere you do look, you did perceive your plane of eternal rest."

She looks off at this point, gazing out towards the forest and space beyond the window.

"I often wonder if others see things as I do. Beyond the obvious of others not having my eyes and spark, to interpret the sight I behold, imagine being able to see and speak of such, without the hinderance of language as a barrier."

Deep thoughts after eating sushi, clearly. Lunch time conversations for deep thinkers is best, it would appear, with this desert clad beauty.

"Such... marvels." She then shuts her eyes and seems to 'hear' sounds that aren't there once more.

Her dark gaze returns once again to Illithia, focused on her face once more with a smile.

Illithia frowns for a moment, then shrugs again, her happy-go-lucky attitude seemingly unruffled by the deep and focused manner of her companion. "Heh, I think you've lost me a bit there. Like, I've seen other Planes, at least a few times, but I can't help but think that's not really what you're talking about, huh?"

"I guess it depends on how you wanna define things." Illithia once again leans back on the bench, though this time not far enough to tempt falling over. "But I'm getting way over my head with this stuff. I stayed out of the philosophy classes for a reason. Makes my brain hurt."

Anahita's thoughtful contemplation continues while looking towards nothing in particular.

"I have only known the life devoted to the divine. While not a predetermined devotion, at least so I believe, recent events make me dwell on this further with the looming threat of ...anger, were I to find out it is one truth versus another."

Her brow furrows in thought.

"Your manner fills me with the desire to ask this. You are quite free spirited, I perceive you. I cannot help but consider everything these days, were before I would not have given too much thought on it. Would you recognize your metaphysical Heaven if you arrived? Or the opposite?"

Anahita looks over at Illithia again now, the spot that-a-way no longer holding her attention.

Illithia reclines for a brief moment, seemingly forgetting that she was seated on a bench with no back, and almost falls off. There's a brief bout of flailing to stay on the bench before she regains her balance once more. She grins a bit sheepishly, her tattoos subtly shifting to an embarrassed pink.

"I dunno, Ana, getting angry won't fix anything. Even if it's not the way you thought it was, think about this instead: I met a priest once, back before I came to Avalon, who had dedicated his life to a god of madness, pain, and evil. Nicest guy, devoted to helping and healing, so I was pretty confused. He explained that the god had once been pure and righteous, and had been corrupted. The priest dude believed that the god had taken some evil intended for Agartha onto himself to protect us." Illithia shrugs and smiles. "I guess my point is is that even the gods are only what you choose for them to be. If that priest can take something wholly evil, and find inspiration in his to help the world, then..."

She trails off, apparently losing the thread of her point. There's silence for another long moment before. "You get what I'm saying?"

"And Heaven sounds totally boring by the way. Angels are stuck-up as Hell."

Anahita's expression goes through a few variations, including annoyance and then calmness, the default when merely present to the world around her.

"So you chose your subject based on ...reactions in others? Interesting." With a glance back up at Illy again, after the last question, she replies.

"A world named Golarion, based on the majority of the population. Specifically, in a nation called the Padishah Empire of Kelesh. I suppose you can place me in that off planet category along with a few others. Not sure how relevant that is, though in the grand scheme of things ..." There's a pause of thought on her face as she seems to consider her words.

After a few moments, she looks off in consideration, then back to Illy. "Have you ever sat to ponder the point of your existence? The actual... divine, or something beyond your own thinking, purpose? Destiny, perhaps?"

She seems pretty casual about the topic, in tone and manner.

"'S one way of learning 'bout people. Put pressure on them and see out they react." Illithia replies with a shrug before hopping down off the table and returning to her seat.

Illithia looks as though she about to say something in response to Anahita talking about Golarion when she changes the subject to the highly existential.

Illithia just smiles, her tone a match for Anahita's casual statement. "Heavy s!*!, huh?" she takes a bit of deep-fried potato into her fingers and toys with it for a moment, seeming to idly consider it. She then pops it into her mouth, and speaks while chewing. "Way I see it, whatever's out there..." she makes a vague gesture upwards, "Like... gods, the divine, whatevs you wanna call it, you gotta wonder if they're just like us. The future's just this thing, y'know? Jus' cause they have more power, more wisdom, all that, doesn't mean that they always know what's going on. Doesn't mean they control everything. If dentisy's like, real or whatever, they'd be subject to it too, y'know?"

Illithia just shrugs, grabs another fry to munch. "I dunno, I guess I'm not too worried about it? What about you? I'm pretty sure I've got a few coppers for your thoughts."

She starts idly rooting through her pockets, reclining so her hands slide in more easily.

Giving the speech a bit of thought, though not really reacting too greatly to the dramatic and playful stance, Anahita dwells in thought before speaking again.

"I do not assume. I speak from the perspective of what is simple and natural. There is female, there is male. Those together, with exceptions in some species, give of one another-- and Life is continued. Sexuality, if you mean the enjoyment of one another's body, isn't anything I speak of. I cannot, it is not something I am overly familiar or learned in. If you mean anything else by sexuality-- I.." She gives a shrug. "That is not something I have studied at great length, or any, though I could speculate. I feel my observation and knowledge of the natural world is deep enough that I speak with some conviction and awareness, not assumption. Though, there is always room for change, and more learning."

She then looks up at Illy's stance and says, "I would not call you sexy, not like I am now. Though, your coloring is quite enticing at times, due to the exotic flavor of their manner. Your mind is intriguing, and that I find alluring. Your passions are noticeable, and those are refreshing to be near. I'm not sure what a male human would think of you, being halfling and the coloring, though, a simple person would most likely go one of two ways; attraction or fear masked as something else."

Then with a casual off handed wave, she concludes in agreement, "You speak wisely. Everyone has a choice in doing what they want-- and those that hurt another, threaten the choice all have innately when available. But, that is the talk of civilized philosophers. It's quite different in the wild untamed world. Quite different. The priorities are quite different."

Then looking back at Illithia, she asks, "Why do you bring up the topic of sex each time we speak? Are you obsessed, as they say, with that? Or do you simply enjoy the reactions people might provide on it?" Curiosity in her voice, though still expressively calm and thoughtful.

"But simplicity isn't natural, y'know?" Illithia replies, with a partially dismissive motion of her arm. Even standing on the table her head is barely a foot above Anahita's. "The most natural thing in the world is complexity, even in the natural world. Ecosystems are so massively complicated that it boggles the mind. And it keeps going inside of us too."

She shrugs though, smiling and seeming in good humour, as if merely discussing these things was enjoyable for her. "Fear, maybe not as much at Avalon. I'm pretty normal, as far as folks go here. I don't even change shape into anything!"

"Well, it's cause sex is this, like, super polarizing thing, y'know? Never know how folks are gonna react when you bring it up. Can tell you alot about a person."

"And besides," she adds with a smirk. "It is fun. But we can talk about something else if you want. Like, where you come from? Agartha, or are you an off-planeter? Heh, still kinda weird to think about that."

Tilting her head to the side briefly while glancing up and away, at Illithia's initial response, Anahita says, "My perception is that Marsi is male, perhaps there is something to explore there." If there's any sense of tact in this Universe, especially in a High School setting, Anahita lacks (apparently) skill in that. "I am curious to learn more -- Intriguing. As for not being into ladies, I must profess that there's a certain appeal. Like knowing like, again, something worth considering."

Once Illy mentions the Bleachling, however, her attention snaps down and towards the (assuming it's Repp) Halfling in question. There's a study, of sorts, not directly looking right at him, and then Anahita does that 'zoning out' thing, but different this time. She's quiet and unanimated, her expression bland, even if her features never fail to demonstrate their natural beauty.

"i ... no. There is a disconnection there, as I know it. I... hmm." A loss of words, oddly enough. She remains quiet in thought for a few more moments. "Curious. More feeling than thought on that topic."

"Can you explain, beyond the changes in the body due to the age of our peers, why primarily this topic of pleasure is foremost in your mind, and not, say-- the pleasure of casting spells, or exploring the unknown world around us?" She leans in and props her chin on a fist, elbow supporting that, faintly smiling at Illy who falls into her sleepy gaze. Her voice casual on the topic, yet still with that accent born of being a non-Common native speaker.

Illy maintains her grin at Anahita's apparently naivety and lack of tact, and waves her hand in the air. "You're assuming that sex and sexuality is something simple and easy to understand. It's waaaaay more complicated than that. Jus' cause Marsi's got a dick that doesn't make her a guy. It's all up here." There's somewhat wild gesticulating to go along with what she's saying, and Illy finishes by tapping her forehead. "Same thing for you. Nothing wrong with being curious about the ladies. I mean look at me. Damn sexy, no?"

She hops off her chair up onto the table when she says that, striking a noble (if somewhat silly) pose. Her tattoos are still solidly purple.

"Well, considering from what I've seen, adults are also obsessed with sex. Maybe it's just instinct. But there's also lots of people who don't care about sex, who like to do other stuff. It's their life, right? As long as they're not hurting nobody, who cares?" She finishes, still standing in her silly pose atop the table.

If anyone can find a better profile picture for Illithia, all the tattoo'd characters are either taken or not the right look at all.

Anahita follows as Illy speaks, glancing down only once briefly at the start, then back up while looking at the young girl with coloring, straight in the eyes. Clearly a point was made, or true, but she proudly didn't respond to it verbally, or deny it.

"I do not see the point of visiting my quarters, truth be told. I assure you that I am well now, with focus comes awareness. With intent, the sloth that creeps in me fades. I have endured for a week or so without much rest, I can manage this. As for overstimulated-- yes, I cannot seem to stop looking into everything, thinking about everything. Yet, it feels good-- no, it feels great, to think. Even on the silliest things. There is a pattern to this, I'm certain, but I'm unsure being present to it as I am, the reason for it. A reason that one day, will be expressed clearly. Perhaps not today."

She finishes up the last of her remaining few sushi pieces and then looks back to Illithia, "Do you fancy any of the persons here, Illy? Your silent companion, perhaps? If I am being too forward, do let me know."

Glancing about she spies on the few Firebirds in the room, or open sources of fire, then back to Illy again.

Illithia lets loose an overly dramatic exasperated sigh, but she carries on good-naturedly. "You're too stubborn for your own good. Alright, I won't bug you about resting right now, but you have to promise me you're going to get some actual sleep soon, alright? Magical sleeps and cheating on time-screwy planes doesn't count. It can't be healthy in the long run, y'know? 'Specially if you're falling asleep with your eyes open at the lunch table." There's a playful display of tongue there, directed at Anahita, her ink colouration settling firmly into that playful purple Anahita had praised earlier. :P

There's a light punch to Anahita's shoulder at the question of whom Illithia may or may not fancy. "Wha, you mean Marsi? Naw, I'm not into the ladies." she says, gesticulating animatedly in a dismissive way. "She's a sweet girl though. Got this thing where she's utterly terrified of anyone hearing her voice." Oddly, Anahita may recall that her Life Sense ability almost certainly labeled Illithia's silent companion as being male, counter to Illy's noun and pronoun usage.

Her eyes do flick around the room though, clearly 'checking out' various guys around the eating hall - almost all of them either halflings, or gnomes.

"That guy there is pretty cute." Illy says, apparently having no brakes on this conversation train, as she points out a white-skinned, white-haired gnome heading into the kitchens. "Though I'm guessing a bleachling wouldn't be much fun in the sack."