following the footsteps of a rag doll dance, we are entranced ...

[seeingyou]

WHO: OPEN to all passengers.
WHAT: General mingle log for the first part of the month, including new partner pairing stuff.
WHERE: Navi, all over.
WHEN: Now until the next event (Oct. 3-17).
WARNINGS: If things get messy and/or upsetting, please put warnings in your comment subject lines! And if you absolutely can't keep from strangling your new partner, please report it on the death page.

Hello, passengers! Today begins just like normal, but it’s far from an ordinary day. On this fine point in space-time, passengers will notice a little something different when it comes to the glyphs marked on the backs of their hands.

They're glowing. The light is a deep shade of blue, and it's slowly blinking on and off. Maybe it's searching for something? It's entirely possible, because affected passengers will also feel a gentle tugging sensation that stops once they've come face to face with their partners. The glyph will switch to glowing a steady blue once partners are synced with each other, and they'll be able to communicate telepathically with each other, too.

Have fun getting to know each other a little better! Or, you know. Yelling at each other. Just try to keep the murder to a minimum, OK?

Comments

[albatrossomen]

Having already questioned Navi on the nature of the modification Murmur had been satisfied enough to ignore it further. That is, until it started blinking, if he wanted to be bioluminescent he would be!

The blinking, however, wasn't the worst offense. Oh no, it was that pull, so alien and so horrifyingly familiar at the same time. It tugged close to the same longing ache that drove him to spend hours staring out at the sea listening for a sign. Yet different enough he knew the source wasn't what he'd initially thought it was. No, this was something else, and for that he was deeply annoyed. Murmur did not appreciate having his instincts hijacked by whatever this was.

So, he ignored it. Opting instead to make himself some tea. While he didn't technically require sustenance, over his long lifespan he had grown fond of enjoying a nice cup of tea whenever he could. It came as quite the surprise to find that insistent tug grow even more so just before Emet-Selch arrived in the kitchen, looking about as grimly irritated as Murmur felt.

"Ah, you look like you could do with a cup of tea yourself." He offered. Were they all suffering this bizarre alteration today?

[unnecessaryflourishes]

Emet-Selch can't speak to any of the other inhabitants of the ship, for better or worse. Nor has he much bothered to try and look to see whether or not anyone else has blinking marks on the backs of their hands. For one, he has far better things to do. For another, he doesn't particular care, either.

(He has noticed a number of other people looking either displeased or confused. But he hasn't really felt much of a need to stop and ask about it either.)

"It certainly wouldn't go amiss."

He doesn't expect it'll entirely get rid of that faint tugging (which seems to have gotten less so, now). But it will give him something else to focus on, and right now, he'll take what he can get.

[albatrossomen]

Murmur had felt the spike in tension across the ship, a roiling undercurrent of distress that slithered like an illness through his senses. The change was no coincidence, all were suffering the effects of this unexpected occurrence. Not that Murmur was about to volunteer the truth of his heightened awareness.

"Have a seat, it will not be long. I am afraid the only available sweeteners seem dreadfully... artificial."

But he will offer them all the same, even if he isn't particularly fond. He had noticed that for a brief moment the annoying tug had lessened, if only for a moment. How very... interesting.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"...Artificial how?"

He's certainly not any stranger to the unique inventiveness of humanity, when left to their own devices. But not even Garlean ingenuity has managed anything remotely close to the sorts of things they would have needed to for Emet to be even remotely familiar with anything past a wide variety of natural sweeteners.

[albatrossomen]

"The sweetness tends to be more intense, and often there is something of an aftertaste."

So, use sparingly would be his suggestion. For all Murmur doesn't typically need to eat or drink tea is one of those very few things he allows himself to indulge in. As such it's one of the very few things he's learned to prepare with some level of skill.

Might not be the best tea in the world thanks to his forgetting to pick up non-artificial sweetener, but Emet-Selch is now in for an experience.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"And they're willing to tolerate that, are they?"

The idea of the sweetness being more intense is, at least, not something that he has an objection to. But the fact that it comes with an aftertaste is something that he can't claim to be entirely onboard with the idea of. It will depend on the nature of the aftertaste in question, but he has his misgivings, even just from the description he's been given.

Not enough so to not take the tea, once it finally is offered, but enough to consider the available sweeteners with a certain amount of distrust even so.

[albatrossomen]

"Prefer it at times, even."

It's just as perplexing to him. While Murmur wasn't particularly fond, he could tolerate it in the name of tea.

"From what I understand some do not detect the aftertaste. Otherwise it is less impactful on certain health conditions, allegedly." He goes on to explain as he finally brings a mug over along with the container of artificial sweeteners that come in tiny paper packets. Upon finally getting close enough, the blinking runes finally steady... and the annoying tug stops.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Allegedly."

By the tone of his voice and the raised eyebrow that goes with it, Emet-Selch has his doubts about such things.  Admittedly health conditions are both not something he has any great need to be concerned over but also not something that has been much studied on the Source.  But even so, the idea that that alone would be enough to convince someone to overlook a less than pleasant aftertaste is... while not entirely out of the realm of possibility, still very distinctly something that he has to admit to some skepticism over.

Not enough that he doesn't reach out for the mug of tea when Murmur draws near, though... and then the tugging stops.

"I don't suppose you felt that?"

Or rather, felt the absence of any feeling, but that still ought to be noticeable, or so he'd hope.

[albatrossomen]

"Indeed."

Murmur also had his doubts, though he hardly spent the time in analyzing human health conditions as related to their diets to say with any kind of certainty whether there was truth to the claim or not. Only a memory of one unfortunate experience with this abhorrent stuff was enough to teach him he was none too fond. It was passable, when necessary, but only just.

Emet underestimates a person's willingness to justify continuing to destroy themselves with the slightest of justifications.

There's a slight, but noticeable pause when Murmur also detects the distinct change. It isn't unpleasant, or sharp, but enough to catch his attention. Particularly as he'd grown accustomed to ignoring it by now, the absence was very distinct.

"...I certainly did." He mused, both thoughtful and perplexed as he proceeded to hand over the mug, and set aside his own. Curiously he tugged his glove loose to peer at the mark, now a solid faint blue rather than this morning's blinking. "Well, that's unexpected." What did Tim's video say, that's how they'd link?