Old Wisdom [o, Alter] - Printable Version

There was a noticeable pair of glasses on the face, sitting outside the cabin and paws holding open a book. Dakota’s tail flicked, briefly getting up to stretch. It was too risky, he knew. Dimitri didn’t like him being out in the open until people knew. Yet... there was a nice sunning spot outside and once he laid down a few blankets and dug to the dead grass. The tom seemed pretty satisfied, reading the novel in front of him and minding to himself.

"speech"

Although Atbash wasn't aware of Dimitri's disorder, she had noticed the little quirks here-and-there regarding the way he acted. The weird gasps that seemingly came out of nowhere, and how his tone had shifted to be more higher in one instance. And now? Glasses. Although she supposed that wasn't too weird. After all, some people did need glasses to read, and didn't wear them every day. "What're you reading, Dimitri?" Atbash asked as she neared the other feline, her head tilted. Was it one of the ones she gave him when he visited that one day? That'd be pretty neat, in her opinion. At least somebody was getting a use out of them, right?

Cry had a strange 'tag along' mindset. Even without their permission, she had a tick of keeping an eye on anyone she cared about. She fluctuated between her family members in the past, but now she had a knack for following Izuku, Atbash and even now Alister around. It was just to make sure they were safe. The people in this dimension were crazy and some were out for blood. Sometimes it was nice to simply have a friend.

The bird landed beside the yellow cat. She was easy to spot up in the air frankly becasue she was base yellow on a field of mostly white. Crystal, herself, never met Dimitri, so she did not notice anything wrong with him. To her, it just looked like a cat reading a book. .. Hey that was fairly impressive. She couldn't read! At least, not common! She could only read the runes of her previous world.

Who's your friend? She asked Atbash. She never was good at addressing new people. It took her multiple handfuls of weeks to talk to the people of Snowbound at all. She preferred her small clique. There was no point in making new friends if the friends you already had did not mind you around. It was a lonely mindset, but a useful one.

"SPEECH"

Oh danggit. Okay, Dimitri.... he knew the boy well. Dakota had been a bit of a father figure for Dimitri. That was why he was created, anyways. The elder strongly believed that was his purpose. "Oh, hello Atbash." The alters had access to Dimitri’s memories, and vice versa, but not access to eachother’s memories. It was a weird process and something that had taken them a long time to do. "I borrowed your copy of Gatsby," his tone was more controlled and steady, but he took more pauses, as if it wore him out. He adjusted the glasses and squinted slightly, as if to get a better look at her, then corrected himself.

"It- It’s a bit more interesting when you’re able to con- contextualize it." He needed to shut his mouth. Dimitri didn’t know a think about the hidden meanings.

Atbash opened her mouth to reply to Dimitri's response, when Cry flew over at the same time and she looked down at the raven. "Oh, hey, Cry!" She chirped. "This is Dimitri. He joined while you were gone." One of the few, honestly. The leader turned back to Dimitri, head tilting at his last comment. "What do you mean, 'contextualize it'?" She asked. Was it not just some fun little story to enjoy?

Dakota bit their tongue... but could help himself. He liked teaching and talking to others. Father figure and teacher. "So.... Humans have this- this thing about looking too deep into the stor-story." He hated having to fake the stutter. He breathed slightly, catching his breath. "They're trying to find the author's intentions. Why the author did this. So- so the Great Gatsby...." Dakota flicked the eyes back and forth, trying to figure out how to explain it.... and again, catching his breath. Talking wore him out. "Like the eyes on the sign symbolize the eyes- eyes of God judging them. The whole thing is suppose to be about the American Dream..."

"speech"

Cry raised a brow. Huemans? There were huemans in this dimension? How come she hasn't seen them yet? And why did she change then? ... She blinked. Something was fishy here. She clicked her beak. Fishy indeed. She turned up to Atbash, a dry laugh caught in her throat. Ahah.... Right.

She turned to Dimitri, not bothering to hide her cold glare. She shifted her feathers, reaching down to preen them for a few moments before turning back up. And whats an American Dream, then? she asked, smug. She's heard of a few places. Snowbound, Ascendants, Tanglewood and the Typhoon. But what else was there? Maybe smaller places but she's never heard high tail of any America.

"SPEECH"

Dimitri's actions sure were odd, but Atbash didn't really want to call him out on them yet. Especially not in public; she didn't want to embarrass him. The mention of 'God' made Atbash's ears flicked, though she wasn't going to say anything on that matter, either. She wasn't really religious, and besides, the mention of God didn't really prove if Dimitri was or not. As long as Dimitri didn't hold up any crosses or anything, she would be fine. Not that she'd go into rage or anything; just burn or panic.

"Yeah, what is that?" Atbash echoed Cry's own question. Humans were weird, weren't they? Although Atbash could understand wanting to know the meaning behind something, she thought symbolism might be too hard to understand or find. Why waste time with that?

Now they did it. Dakota wasn’t about to shut up. "So- so Humans have this place called America. I think it’s.... supposed to be like a paradise. The dream is that you get there, you work really hard, and then you get to live in peaceful retirement....." He paused in his speech to take a breather and reminded himself to stutter. "But.... it’s a lie. You don’t get to retire. You work yourself to death. All the char-characters get to success because they all came into money.... Gatsby, Daisy, the main character.... " he thought about it more. "Myrtle is trying to achieve the dream through her affair while her real- real husband works." Stop. Too much. "And Gatsby.... despite having all this wealth and money, wants- wants Daisy so much. He has all the money in the world but he isn’t happy."

"speech"

That was honestly... a lot to take in. America? Paradise? But Snowbound was almost like a paradise to Atbash, so why would they need America? Then again, she supposed that 'America' could be something different. The humans didn't exactly seem to enjoy the cold so much, despite ruining their previous camp. "But why would humans lie like that?" She asked. Then again, this question was almost like asking Caesar why he lied. For personal gain, to be manipulative. To act like everything was okay and everything was normal. "Wouldn't it be easier to just... be honest?" Again, another silly question. Humans were weird, despite almost having the same intentions as her brother. Maybe she should be asking why Gatsby wasn't happy, but honestly, she sort of understood that. Just because you had a lot of money and wealth and power doesn't mean you were happy. Being around others and enjoying their company did.