As always, it is night in Island Realm. As usual, the realm is empty... Except for two people in the high tower off the western shore. In a large room, a sort of study, a young woman with violet hair and dark green eyes leans against a tall window, resting her forehead on the glass and staring out at the perpetual eclipse. The other person is an elf with fairly unkept silver hair and violet eyes, wearing grey and white wizard's robes and leafing through some book. The woman sighs.
"I never liked that part..."
The elf closes the book and looks at her.
"What part?"
She turns from the window to face him.
"The sun. Why the whole eclipse deal?"
"It was your mother's idea. Neither of you would have much use for a tan."
"Funny."
"I try."
The woman sits down on a stack of books next to the window and sits back against the wall.
"...I still don't understand any of it."
"Any of what?"
"The Island, playing with time magic, the Hunter... Going against your clan and the Mage's Guild... Why all this trouble?"
A grin crosses the elf's face, but he tries to sound perfectly serious.
"The Island, we needed a place to stay."
"That's stupid..."
"The magic, I don't have much else to do with the time I have already, so I decided to find a way to make less of it."
"You're being ridiculous."
"Quite possibly. As for Cyril, he was willing to help and had access to things I did not."
"Like sense."
The elf smiles again, and sits down on a couch nearby, lying back and closing his eyes.
"And my clan and the Guild are all stubbornly doing nothing in an attempt to see whether their immortality or sanity last longer."
The woman glares at him.
"And as for all the trouble, that's because I think it's all worth it."
"...Do you really have that low an opinion of the guilds and clans?"
"No. I hold them in the highest regard. I just think many of them have waited too long, and already found out which one lasted longer."
The young woman raises an eyebrow in a questioning gaze.
"...Many? What about the rest?"
"The rest are either boring or try to make something out of their lives."
"So, which category do you and mother fall into?"
"...I am a very boring old elf who is trying to find a proper way to waste his time. You mother is a mostly-sane woman who has found a good use for her life."
The woman rubs her temples, partially out of annoyance and partially to hide a smile at the ridiculousness of the answers she's getting. She mumbles something under her breath.
"...The daughter of a lunatic and an activist..."
"What?"
"Nothing..." she says, and get up to sit beside him on the couch, though he still remains lying back with his eyes shut. "What exactly are the two of you trying to accomplish, anyway?"
"Much."
"Note the 'exactly' in that question."
He opens one eye to look at her with a ridiculous grin.
"Well, I can think of one thing that took a lot of work..."
The response is another glare from the girl.
"...Cute."
"You are. But as your father, I guess I'm required to say that."
"You're avoiding the questions."
He pats her on the head condescendingly when he replies.
"What a serious little girl you've become..."
She quickly pulls away.
"Oh please, I'm-"
"-374 years old. Yes, I remember your birthday. But I've gone through mine 19,000 and some times more than you have."
"You don't get many presents, do you?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because there's still space to walk in."
The elf claps upon hearing that last response.
"Finally, Lynne, some humor."
"Just waiting for you to stop ignoring all the important questions."
The elf lies back and rubs his chin in false contemplation while Lynne glares at him.
"Important Questions... Give me an example. I haven't heard one of those in a few hundred years."
"Fine. Here's one: What happened to that hunter friend of yours?"
"Which one? The relic hunter or the vampire hunter?"
"Number two."
He shrugs.
"I'm not really sure. Ask your mother."
"..."
"Here's a better important question for you..."
"Fine, what is it?"
"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
"You consider that an important question?"
He replies to her amused stare with a very serious tone.
"Very."
"...You are crazy."
He smiles again and walks over to the window she was looking out of, talking on the way.
"I don't know. I'd consider the origins of our very existence to be important enough."
"...What does that have to do with breakfast foods?"
"Absolutely nothing. If the egg came first, it implies that the egg came from another creature that later becomes a chicken. If the chicken came first, then some higher force had to have created the chicken."
"Ah. That controversy that Earth has maintained for however many years."
"Yes, that one."
"...So, which was it?"
"The egg."
"So you're a evolutionist."
"No, it had to be the egg either way. If you were creating a world, what would you put on it? A rooster with something dangling off its head and a chip on its shoulder, or a bunch of newly hatched chicks?"
"...Completely crazy."
"Yes, but it's a nice way to avoid the question."
"Something you've been doing all evening."
"At least I'm consistent."
"...I give up... I'll just go to bed..."
"You just got up an hour or two ago."
"Fine. I'll go for a walk."
"Before you go... Are you tired of ridiculous questions or of ridiculous answers?"
"...I'll get a ridiculous answer any way I reply..."
"Maybe I should ask the guild about training you in Divinations..."
"Funny... So, if I answer that I'm tired of the answers?"
"Then you realize that I'm being ridiculous and you're halfway there. To which my advice would be to stop asking ridiculous questions."
"How was any of that ridiculous?"
"Anything resulting in the Chicken Question being brought up has to be ridiculous."
"...Fine... And if I reply that I'm tired of ridiculous questions?"
"Then you realize that you're being ridiculous and you're halfway there. To which my advice would be to find a less sensible person to answer your questions."
"... And if I was tired of both?"
"Then you realize that we're both being ridiculous and you've figured it out. To which my advice is we go on a walk to finish this conversation in a more sensible way."
"...You sound like a Malkavian."
"I've known a few."
"So... Why are we currently living on an island in the middle of the ocean on a forgotten world?"
"There are fewer interruptions that way."
"Interruptions in what?"
"Playing with time magic."
"And why are you playing with time magic?"
"...To pass the time."
"You said-"
"Sorry, I couldn't resist just one."
"..."
"Oh well... Because I think some others will need it."
"What others?"
"A few people who are bound to take my place as a Planeswalker, among other things."
"Who?"
"I can't say. But I know I've already lost two, one to himself and another to the War. The next two I keep an eye on, and they're doing fine. The other... I'll be joining the rebels to watch."
"What?!"
"Don't worry. This will involve a bit of time manipulation. That's one of the reasons I've been studying it. I need to go back before the War for this. I won't be at the front until afterwards."
"...You're planning on preventing the whole war?"
"Not at all. That would ruin everything... Now, you had other questions?"
"...Okay. What happened to the hunter?"
"Cyril or Adean?"
"The first, then the second."
"I honestly do not know what happened to Cyril. He vanished two months before we began living here."
"...Why do I feel like there's a connection there?"
"Are you implying foul play? I'm shocked. Think about it. My wife is a vampire, and my daughter is a half-vampire. I don't think it would be very intelligent of me to bring a family like mine into the presence of an obsessive and powerful hunter like Cyril."
"Fair enough..."
"As for Adean, he's still wandering around looking for very old bits of metal and other material that he considers very valuable, is still looking for another 4 mages to join him in the Prism Guild, and is one of the few people who still send me birthday presents."
"..."
"If you must know, I keep most of them in the basements, and put the really nice-looking ones up on the top floor. He always sends me his latest discovery of ancient power-artifacts, none of which I ever use."
*realm sheild ripples like water*
"We have a visitor...."
