video; un: laurea

[wearingguess]

[ thunder crashes. the wind howls. a blond youth wearing an enormous cable-knit sweater over a dress shirt with the collar popped places his palms flat on the counter of a starter-apartment kitchen and earnestly addresses the camera. ]

Hello! The current circumstances are less than ideal, but I can put this off no longer.

Whether you know me or not, I am Titus Alexius, formerly of the Reim empire. It is more or less accurate to say that I am sixteen years old. I have been conducting research with the Lunar Scientia for the past several months, and I have also had more than I can stand of living alone. Therefore, I have prepared a simple twenty-question survey!

Anyone and everyone is welcome to submit a response, and there is no need to answer every question. But to show my appreciation, I shall provide all those who complete at least the identifying information with a code redeemable for one free empanada from the stall by the fountain at the northern end of Greatmoon Groves. [ he pauses thoughtfully and then leans in further. ]

...And if you do not care for empanadas, let me know and I will arrange an alternative.

...Also, I am reasonably certain everything in that marketplace is currently closed due to the inclement weather and invisible tentacle attacks. And a number of the survey questions, too, posit situations or activities that are momentarily, if not impossible, then inadvisable. But, well. We must believe these hardships will be temporary, mustn't we?... [ he shrugs helplessly and grimaces! ]

Thank you for your attention!

[ and underneath the prismagram video is the survey in question, along with a few additional links. ]

Survey Form
Name: Moonblessing: Approximate length of tenure on Prismatica: 1. Are we friends?  —If yes, hello! —If no or unsure, would you like to be friends? 2. Are you satisfied with your current living situation? —If yes, might you also be satisfied with a different living situation? 3. Do you have any roommates? —If no, would you like one? —If yes, would you like another one? ——If yes, would your roommate(s) also like another one? 4. Would you like to live on Level 2 of Lunatia in a cottage with a small garden? —If yes, are you open to sharing a room? ——If yes, are you open to sharing a bed?  5. Do you like cats? —If yes, would you like to have a(nother) cat? ——If yes, would you like to have this cat (SEE SUPPLEMENT A)? 6. Do you have any aversions or preferences when it comes to fragrance (both in general, and with regard to Cordis pheromones)? —If yes, please elaborate: 7. Would you consider the recurring presence of Cordis pheromones in a shared living space to be a benefit, a drawback, or neither? 8. Are you comfortable with moths and butterflies of various sizes? 9. Do you have any strong feelings regarding magic or mages? —If yes, please elaborate: 10. Do you like to stay up late? 11. Can you fly? —If no, would you like to? 12.  Do you like to cook? —If yes, would you like to cook for me? ——If no, would you like me to cook for you? 13. Do you like to go out to eat? —If yes, would you like to go out to eat with me? ——For fried noodles? ——For waffles? ——For seafood curry? ——Other (please specify): 14. Do you like to go shopping? —If yes, would you like to go shopping with me? ——For snacks? ——For clothes? ——Other (please specify): 15. Do you wish to obtain more possessions? —If yes, would you like some of mine?  ——If yes, please visit my current home (SEE SUPPLEMENT B) to make your selections (the Lost Orrery and leatherbound treasury of Prismatican myth are off limits).  16. Do you like hugging? —If yes, would you like to hug me? 17. Do you like kissing? —If yes, would you like to kiss me? 18. Are you a member of the Lunar Scientia or the Moon Knights? —If yes, would you like to join me for lunch in one of the commissaries sometime? 19. Do you have any strong feelings regarding the Lunar Scientia or the Moon Knights? —If yes, please elaborate: 20. Would you like to register a grievance or complaint of any kind against the Lunar Scientia (e.g., for leadership's continued reckless rush to reawaken anything and everything, no matter how poorly understood and potentially cursed)? —If yes, please elaborate (indicate whether you wish your response to be anonymized):  ***Please submit this survey to receive your coupon code. For directions to the empanada stand, see supplement C.***

Supplemental Survey Materials
A. file: phix.image
B. location: apartmentL2U128.nav 
C. location: EmpanadaEmpusa.nav

Comments

2/2 video;

[itsknighttime]

[[Mirror shades and platinum blond, bordering white hair pop onto the screen, equally pale skin accented by the dim lights of his comm and in the background of his kitchen where the rest of his apartment is left dark. There's a small drawl to his voice, nothing he is letting get the better of his words, but the accent remains as he speaks.]]

Alright, you win. That was good. Good and also original, and also included 'red', so I mean you kinda cheated but that's a'right.

video!!

[wearingguess]

It wasn't cheating! I thought of it because you write in red letters; it was personalized! ...Ah, though now that I think of it, perhaps a pickup line that is personalized to that extent slightly defeats the purpose.

But I'm glad I get to see your face! Sixteen is essentially how old I am now. When were you here before, and how old are you now?

[itsknighttime]

It's kinda cheating, but it's good cheating. I'm fine with it, though, can't say I ever had someone figure out a pointed pickup line. Or a pickup line.

[[Alright that's a really nice thing to say. At least to him.]]
I don't think I've ever had someone say they're glad to see my face. I'm glad you saw my face, too.

[[He taps his chin, tilting his head.]]
Twenty one? Probably twenty one. This place kinda makes me feel like I'm not sure but I'm sticking with twenty one.

[wearingguess]

Well, that makes far less sense than my being unfamiliar with pickup lines. Who wouldn't want to see your face? —Unless, of course, no one's said it because you always set challenges like that before showing anyone, and I am the first one who succeeded! Hohohh.

[ of course, titus is still in the same apartment as before but has now relocated to the couch. and the video stays remarkably stable in spite of a fairly intense sideways flop! ]

I'm never quite sure how old to say I am, either... but this place isn't why. What is it that makes you feel uncertain?

[itsknighttime]

[[He scratches his head in thought to that question as a serious question. Dave is certain there's people in this place who wouldn't be too keen on a random, nerdy albino showing up on their feed.]]
I dunno, probably people out there.

[[The rest of the statement, however, garners a small, lopsided curl of one side of his lips.]]
You can safely keep that trophy, I don't really do video around here. It's easier to type. Ehh, I guess easier isn't the real thing, I'm just used to typing and speech to text.

[[Dave also hasn't noticed that in the small span of "no I don't want to get attached/meet new people" he has already met new person and already enjoys new person. The question of age makes him sigh a contemplative sound and then relax back, himself.]]
I crossed at least one birthday here, but when I went back everyone else who was my age, was only 20 or 21ish. Came back here and my birthday's only a few months away again. Time can be a pretty big bitch, I know it can be, but Jesus, y'know?

[[He tips his head up, happy to move on after his rhetorical question.]]
Why's it hard to say in your case? Your age I mean?

[wearingguess]

Oh, birthdays... [ those things! ] Honestly, once you are at the point where you're traveling to different worlds with different timelines and calendars, those are totally irrelevant to tracking your age. I mean, imagine if you traveled to a new world every two days, and they all coincidentally measured years in exactly the same way as each other... but every time you got to a new world, it was always the day before your birthday. After twenty days, you'd have passed ten more birthdays, but it's not like you could honestly say you were ten years older! So I just track my age by counting the days themselves... But I suppose it helps that we don't use the same calendar system here that we do in my world, so I was never tempted to try to match them up. [ shrug!!! ]

[ and now the big question. titus is the one who brought it up, of course, but it's still hard figuring out how best to explain. ]

I'm...
I've only really lived for two years. One here, one back home. But I spent fourteen years before that... um...
Incubating, I suppose? Pupating, maybe. And I was, you know, conscious and self-aware and everything for all that time, so it probably counts toward the total. But the way I look, and the degree to which my identity and mind are fully formed, and so on—those, I think, would be exactly the same whether I had spent five years incubating, or fifty. So while I do know how long it's been in numerical terms, I never feel quite sure of my "age" when it comes to being a child versus being an adult...

But it is certainly true that it has not yet been eighteen years by any measure, so I abide by the alcohol restriction.

I also used to keep all of that secret, but I stopped seeing the point several months back.