capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

WHO: Terra, Illidan
WHERE: THE CITY
WHEN: Around 2 am, 5/7. So, before and ~*~after~*~ Alex's warehouse solo rave.
WARNINGS: Do not eat, drink, or smoke this log.
WHAT: Some people get affected by magic. Some people don't. This is one such occasion.
WORDS: yes

It had been... a strange week, to be sure. The boggling magic that was the "Renaissance Faire" had long since dissipated, but it hadn't gone without residue. Things had been uncomfortably strained between Terra and Zelgadis, matters more complicated than ever. True, Terra thought to herself to the sound of her quiet footfalls, things were often complicated in Terra's life, especially where he was concerned, but it was a great deal more pronounced when they shared an apartment. It certainly didn't make it any easier to sort out her own mess of a life.

So it was well, well past midnight, and Terra needed space enough to think. She forewent the roof this time, instead taking a spring night stroll like more normal people.

Well, like normal people would have done six hours ago.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The strange thing was that it was not even the elder Illidan alone that reinforced such notions in her; repeatedly in this world, those who saw her other side, as true as the one standing here now, were quick to call her monster.

After enough repetitions, she'd accepted the label as truth. It was a great deal harder for it to be stripped away again by reassurances or friendly words.

When the younger spoke, Terra bowed her head to hide her expression. "Yes... that's true," she said, her voice quiet. Of course duality made perfect sense. She was caught between two peoples, two worlds, and belonged to none.

"But... glow?" That seemed weird. Despite what she was, everyone she met had stronger, more versatile magics than she, and even then there weren't many of them she'd describe as strongly as that.

Edited 2011-05-08 09:14 (UTC)

He shrugged. "Magic, when you see it with sight like that, it's different than most people think," he explained. Indeed, his own magic sight he would regain eventually would be the same as this. "When you shift planes, and become invisible, you travel the magical one, and so you see only magic. I guess you could say it was a glow, but it was more like an aura," he explained. "If I saw someone evil, but powerful, I would see the power, but it wouldn't be bright. It would look different."

He felt a shame come over him, and the now purple skin that the older Illidan had been unable to possess in this realm tinted slightly pink.

It wasn't precisely the flush that did it, but something about the way he spoke made Terra's inner, contrary thoughts chime in with a harsh why are you giving him so much information? It continued on with Zelgadis's warnings about Illidan; that he consumed magic, that he never did anything for anyone else unless he could get something out of it, that he was nothing short of exactly the wrong kind of people anyone should associate, but especially Terra.

Chastised by memory, Terra took it--and Illidan's expression--as cue to pull her hand away, wrapping warm fingers around the heavy heirloom pendant at her throat. Where her thoughts weren't berating her, they were trying to make sense of what this Illidan claimed to see.

"The brightness..." she started, words tentative. "That's how you can judge how... good a person is?"

He almost looked dejected when she pulled away, but he covered it with a slightly superior look, like he totally knew what he was talking about. Honestly, he was spewing assumptions out of his rear-end.

"Not exactly?" he paused, trying to think. "See, a good person can do bad things, and a bad person can do great things. It's more about how the nature of the person is. You can see what they are, not something like good and evil, that doesn't mean much," he shrugged. "My people are eternal, we don't judge on things like that. It's about what you do, how you affect the world in the long-run that shows in your aura. A terrible person could do something great, and completely change the course of history forever, and his aura reflects those actions."

It wasn't the easiest thing to wrap her head around -- probably because Illidan himself didn't even understand what he was talking about -- and Terra tilted her head a little for curiosity.

"What you saw... what does it mean?"

"It means that you've had impact. Good impact, on many things," he explained. "It's a good thing!"

Considering the impression Terra must have given Illidan by this point, her reaction to that sort of statement was probably not one he would have expected. There was surprise to her face, true, but coloring that was the quiet pulls of denial, and disbelief. Somehow, she just couldn't accept that her existence had left a positive mark, no matter how much good she tried to accomplish.

She wasn't even sure how to reply to that.

He paused, and shook his head. "It's not important, anyway! I'm not very old, so I might not know what I'm talking about, yet."

He flashed her a self-depreciating smile. "So! Food?"

"Yeah. It's weird," she said, attention redirected and the previous topic gratefully dropped. "The City's much more lively than this... even this late..."

Almost lazily she gestured to a nearby strip of buildings. "These are all restaurants, but there's... nobody going in or out. No music... and I can't smell anything being cooked."