The following morning after a day of hanging out, Neath and Galivinth await Galelith's arrival outside in front of the apartment building. Within just a little over five minutes, their ride arrives. However, it's not the steam blowing bus they've rode on since the start of this arrangement that shows up this time. It's that ebony old timely car his father showed up with the first time they met, which lands from a descending flight. And without delay, the two adolescents move to enter the backseat of the vehicle.
"Good morning, you two." Galelith greets before advancing the car forward to take his usual method of exiting the neighborhood.
"Morning." Naeth responds.
"Morning, Dad. What happened to the bus?" Galivinth greets in turn before following up with a question.
"Nothing in particular. It was a prototype side project for something far more ambitious, is all. I learned what I needed to from it." Galelith answers.
"Oh. You're making a better bus?"
"No. A flying city, actually." Galelith corrects.
"A flying city?" Galivinth repeats, brows furrowing with skepticism.
"Yes."
"A city.... That flies?"
"That's definitely what I'm aiming to build." Galelith stoically responds.
"How?" Galivinth questions with doubt utterly disrupting any notion that doing such a thing will ever be possible.
"With science and my vast knowledge of engineering. The foundation is dated, but the bus was my reassurance that it can indeed be done very effectively." Galelith explains.
"Why are you building something like that?" Galivinth prods further.
"It's a task I was assigned to follow through with. It was a proposal I made years ago in hopes of uprooting from the land we occupy despite US and Canadian governments' protest. For self-sustainability, we couldn't oblige them initially. But maybe in the next ten or so years, we can entertain the request without issue. But regardless, it's not ultimately up to me. It may just end up serving as an additional asset rather than a place to migrate to." Galelith answers honestly.
"Oh. I see... sounds complicated under the surface."
"It all comes down to a matter of perspective, but I understand where you're coming from." With that response from Galelith, silence overtakes the atmosphere. Just until Neath lightly nudges Galivinth with an elbow, and gestures toward Galelith with a tilt of his head. Assuming his relative would catch the hint.
"Oh! Right, right. Uhh, dad?" Galivinth calls out.
"Yes, Galivinth?" His father answers.
"I.... There's this thing... There's something I need to tell you." The teen struggles expressing his thoughts and ends up stalling a bit.
"I'm listening intently as I possibly can, son. Tell me whatever is on your mind."
"...You might go to jail if I lose a game of Conquest Bout against the King." Galivinth finally gets those words out, wearing guilt upon his features as he does.
"I'm aware of that stipulation in your wager with the king."
"You are?" Galivinth questions while arching a brow.
"Yes, I am. He told me about it directly. A... rather unfortunate predicament, yet also an amusing one." The elder responds, grinning a tad.
"Amusing? Dad, you could end up in a cell because of me! I didn't want to take the wager, but he said... that he'd execute you if I didn't..."
"Then I'm glad that you agreed to the wager. Truth be told, I was sure you wouldn't put my life on the line if you didn't have any other choice."
"You're taking this way too casually... You can tell me if you're angry. It'd be totally understandable if you're upset." Galivinth assures.
"But I'm not. Maybe a bit uneasy about it, but I'd only be lying to myself if I said this wasn't exclusively my fault. I have been testing my luck by frequently bringing you back with me. There's still a potential positive side to this whole ordeal, though. You could gain full citizenship, removing the burden of worrying any further." Galelith explains optimistically.
"...I... just have to win..."
"Yes. You have to win in order to achieve the far more favorable outcome." Galelith reaffirms.
"Yeah... easy-peasy, I guess." Galivinth murmurs as he leans back into his seat and tilts his head far back.
"By the way, why do you guys have a kid for a King?"
"It is quite unusual, but he's the only heir to royal bloodline among us. His predecessor, who happened to join us on the trip, died in the crash, thus he's entitled to the position of power. He's undoubtedly young, but he's been given the best education possible, along with the advisory of the science and magic council."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Without further exchange of dialogue, Galivinth spends the rest of the trip submerging himself with his own thoughts. Thinking of just how different cryoneans' social norms were a contrast to what he was used to. To him, they seemed mentally potent in every sense of the concept. They were quite admirable as a race and society.
When they arrive at their destination, the three go on about their routine. Galelith heads to his lab, while Naeth and Galivinth make their way to the gymnasium to train with their teammates. It's there Neath announces that they'll be working on strategies as a team and coordinated maneuvers.
For the next more or less two hours, the group undergoes drills of Naeth and Qoreman's design that assesses everyone's strengths, weaknesses, adequateness, and shortcomings. Though it was no real surprise to anyone, Galivinth was revealed to be the weakest link in every category and exercise. Nothing Naeth was honestly bothered by, though. They were here to train and improve, after all.
While the group takes a rest before continuing further, Naeth approaches Galivinth, who happens to be sitting on the grass and catching his breath.
"Hey, I'll let you rest for half an hour. Why don't you take a walk and go see your dad?" He offers with the intent of distracting his relative from possibly dwelling on demoralizing thoughts.
"I'm fine..." Galivinth responds before pausing to huff out a couple of breaths of air.
"I'm fine. I swear." He assures again.
"I know, but we're still taking a break. Besides, I don't think you can keep going when you're drawing heavy breaths like that. You should consider my suggestion and refresh yourself for when we begin again. There's still a bit more to do today." Naeth insists, turning to leave the other be and head toward the others nearby.
It's a proposal Galivinth sees no true reason not to entertain. Thus, after a moment of thinking on it, he rises up from where he's sitting and heads back inside the building, all the way back near the entrance. From there, he does his best to recall the path he and his father took the last time he was taken to the lab. Surely enough, his memory serves him well and arrives at the entree door in under two minutes.
"Dad?" Galivinth calls out as he pushes the door ajar and peeks his head inside. Who he finds inside, curiously looking back at him, is not Galelith, but instead Tonithy by his lonesome.
"Ah, Galelith's son! He's away for the time being, likely tending to matters in relation to the council." The older Cryonean informs.
"Oh, I see. Then--"
"But! You should step inside, anyway. I'd like pick your atoms a bit." Tonithy chimes in enthusiastically before the young man could finish his thought and retreat back into the hallway.
"What?" Galivinth questions, pausing in place as he shoots the other a puzzled look.
"I want to learn more about you. You're an unusual specimen that should be studied. There's no telling what sort of insight and groundbreaking details that's just waiting to be discovered from you!" The elder better clarifies... To some degree.
"Ehh... You're not going to stick needles in me and cut me open, are you?"
"No, there's no need to! There's plentiful resources at hand that'll allow me to study your innards without performing a vasectomy on you."
"Oh. Well, alright." With that reassurance, Galivinth proceeds to enter completely before allowing the door to shut behind him.
"Great! Now, if you'd be so willing to take a seat here, we can begin immediately." Tonithy responds enthusiastically as he reaches for one of the two mobile seats within the lab by its back support and positions it right in front of himself. With little hesitation, Galivinth approaches and takes his appointed seat - and with no delay of him doing so, Tonithy moves to retrieve the tray-on-wheels nearby.
"Mind telling me how long ago you were born?" The elder asks as he moves the tray over near the counter to lay utensils neatly across it and one by one.
"Sixteen years ago, I guess." The teen answers with a nonchalant look on his face. Pausing briefly in what he was doing, Tonithy arches a brow and looks over his shoulder at the youth.
"You guess? Are you saying you're unsure of when you were?"
"Huh? No. Uh-- Right, right.. My bad. I was definitely born 16 years ago." Galivinth assures with certainty. And with that clarification, Tonithy resumes collecting a few more tools from one of the counter's drawers.
"Much better. Be as direct as you can. Any birth complications? Asthma, neural issues, diseases, mental disorders - those sorts of things."
"No, not at all. Haven't been diagnosed or born with anything." Galivinth informs.
"Height?"
"Five.... ten, I believe." The teen answers.
"Weight?"
"157 pounds, I th--.. Yeah, one-hundred and fifty-seven pounds for sure." Galivinth corrects himself midway of answering.
"I see, I see." The adult cryonean finishes laying out objects across his mobile tray and shifts his direct attention to the teen again, rolling his utensils over to a convenient spot nearby. The first thing he grabs is an ophthalmoscope.
"Look up and stare straight ahead for me." Tonithy instructs, though doesn't quite wait for the order to be obliged. Wielding the optic observation tool in his right hand, he uses the fingertips of his left to press underneath Galivinth's chin and guide it to an ideal angle - one that the teen goes along with without any resistance. Tonithy shuts his right eye and views through the scope with his left as he examines Galivinth's optics intently.
"Are you a doctor, too?" The teen asks while maintaining both a solemn expression and his task of staring at the upper wall beyond Tonithy's shoulder.
"No, not at all. However, some physical examination procedures are beneficial for studying specimens in the field of science. I have enough knowledge to recognize and diagnose more obvious illnesses, but I do not have the means to treat the majority of them. Haven't bothered dedicating too much time into studying many curatives." The elder answers honestly before a 'click' could be heard, and Galivinth suddenly has a source of light beaming into his eye. There's a bit of an involuntary twitch and blink, but the teen adjusts quickly and resumes idly staring forward.
"Hmmm... Int-ter-rest...-ting. Not even a hint of a pupil. It's just purely an iris." Tonithy comments before shifting the focus onto Galivinth's other eye with more or less the same scrutiny.
"How's your vision? Any level of blindness?"
"No. I can see just fine." Galivinth answers.
"Are you sure? No color blindness? Blind spots? Blurriness? Low awareness of light? Maybe even a high level of contrast in light?" Tonithy presses.
"No, none of those. Well... maybe a tiny bit of blurriness. I've been told I'm near-sighted."
"I see. Hang on a moment for me..." Another sound of a single click could be heard before the older male sets down the object in his hand and onto the tray nearby. He steps away to the lengthy counter again and retrieves something from the cabinet on the wall that's positioned near the opposite end. What the scientist ends up returning with is a tube rack containing half a dozen filled tubes - of which he holds up within Galivinth's line of sight.
"Alright, can you tell me what color you see here?" Tonithy asks just after plucking out the one holding some sort of crimson liquid.
"Red."
"Alright, good." Tonithy carefully sets the tube back into its slot and picks up a different one, this time a tube containing an autumn color.
"How about this?"
"Orange."
"Good, good." With another completed, Tonithy swaps it out for another one. This time presenting a cyan color.
"Now?"
"A...green-ish blue color? Not really light blue, but not light green either... Hard to say." Galivinth answers as honestly as he can.
"Fair and close enough! I don't particularly fault you for that one." Another swap occurs, and this time the older male holds up a tube containing an amethyst liquid.
"Last one."
"Purple."
"Alright, alright. So you don't have any issue seeing colors of any kind. But now let's test just how nearsighted you really are." Tonithy takes a moment to set the tube rack onto the counter before moving back to grab a different device. This time it was something that resembles a flashlight. He presses his right thumb down onto a certain area of the body of the light and peels open a compartment that hides a small keyboard of some kind and pushes a few keys before sealing the compartment again.
"Lab, lights off." He commands and in an instant, the lights shut off and gives way to near pitch-black darkness. The bit of light from the several machines in the room illuminates in the darkness, but nothing that makes any detail clear to see. With a shift of the switch on the red device in his hand, a ray of light emits and shines on the wall 9 yards away. It displays a circle of white with Galivinth's name sitting at the center in large bold red letters.
"My name?" Galivinth questions while arching a brow.
"Is that a question or your answer?": Tonithy counter-asks.
"Both. I can see it clearly, and it definitely shows my name on the wall."
"Good! Now, how about--" Tonithy trails off as he peels open the obscuring compartment again and pushes in different keys, but also adjusts the small dial beside them this time. The result is display of a number 1/3 the size of the text previously shown.
"And now?"
That's..." Galivinth pauses, deciding to at least try to make out what was on the wall before he gives an answer. Alas, no matter how much he squints and leans forward in his seat, he just can't make out the blurry message.
"Yeah, that's way too small for me to see." The teen admits, resorting back to his original posture within his seat upon giving up.
L
"I see! Lab, lights on, please." At his command, the lights flick on and illuminate the room once more. Setting the device in his hand back down onto the tray, he abandons it for a stethoscope.
"Why don't you tell me a bit about your upbringing here on earth? Even if it's just the most memorable things that come to mind." Tonithy requests while placing the tool appropriately upon his person.
"My upbringing? Well, I grew up in an apartment on the same street for all my life. I've been bullied. Called weird... blind kid, lame, and... And a pussy... because I don't like fighting." Galivinth finishes with evident annoyance.
"Pussy? That one in particular seems to draw out more of a reaction out of you. According to the English dictionary, it's a term for felines. Well-.. pussycat was the precise word. Is that a way of calling someone nimble?"
"No. It's a way of calling someone a coward. It's also a word for female genitalia."
"Aaaaaahhhh. I see. Take a deep breath for me, by the way." Tonithy instructs as he presses a small flat steel surface against the teen's chest. The latter obeys with a deep inhale and exhale through his nostrils.
"Hm. Interesting! Buuuut I should definitely double check that, just to be certain." Tonithy muses to himself before ridding himself of yet another tool and picking up a different one.
"You know, I thought for sure you'd have something more advanced." Galivinth comments.
"Fair statement. Then again, I'm not a certified doctor. Some of these were collected out of curiosity and research purposes. Though, I think this one in particular will sate your expectation." Tonithy assures as he holds up a royal blue hand-sized device to Galivinth that resembles a translucent clipboard. A light soon begins projecting from it and scanning the teen from head-to-thighs, then vice-versa. When it finishes, the light shuts off and a holographic screen expands from the side that isn't obscured by Tonithy's palm.
"Let's see here. Heart rate is at 76 bpm, blood type is B+.... Whatever that is. 76% Cryonean and 24% human? Wow, that concoction really did force override your genetic makeup! Guess I had no reason to doubt him." The scientist muses out loud as scrolls lower on the interactive display.
"177 centimeters in height, eye color white, development stage 4, and undoubtedly male."
"That thing was able to figure all of that out just by scanning me? How come you didn't start with that?" Galivinth questions while arching a brow.
"I wanted to see how adequate my own observation would be compared to it. Honestly, only a few of them were just very slightly off, so I think I did quite well!" Tonithy answers, then moves to retrieve the other available mobile seat in the room before settling into it near Galivinth.
"So, what do you think of Cryonean culture thus far?"
"It all feels so formal in nature. It's like... being surrounded by librarians."
"Interesting. Could I get you to elaborate on that for me?"
"Well, you guys are incredibly different from humans. Every one of you I've met so far are well-spoken, dignified, and honest. Everyone here seems more driven by logic than emotions, and it's a shift in atmosphere that leaves me in disbelief sometimes. It's admirable, but it makes me feel... lesser, I guess." Galivinth answers.
"Well then, I guess I should also ask how you usually perceive humans. Are they truly such a contrast to us in regard to social norms?"
"They are. Humans vary far more greatly expressive than cryoneans. Some for the better, some for the worse. It can also depend on the area they're in, as well. For example, people in West Illinois are fairly different from those in South Illinois. But an entirely different state would likely seem completely different compared to Illinois as a whole. It's very different from how things are here, I think. I don't know for sure though, because I've only been within this part of the city."
"Sounds quite similar to what I've been able to pick up through the vast entertainment that gets streamed from different regions here on Earth. There is a difference to spot clear as day amongst them." Tonithy concurs with a nod of his head, his arms raising in unity to fold across his chest in the meantime.
"What was your homeworld like?" Galivinth asks.
"Mine? Well, I cannot deny the structure of society varies on the region back home, as well. Fashion and political leaning were the signs of different Kingdoms. Some places heavily lean on magic while the local fashion was commonly green, some are science focus while the local fashion is primarily white. My particular region leans towards magic, but thankfully science wasn't reduced to a minor role. Besides that, I wouldn't say it's difficult to move and adjust back on Cryon. Mannerisms didn't really change all that much."
"Oh, so you guys just have Kingdoms on your planet?
"Yes. A legacy monarchy works well enough. The King or Queen doesn't usually have their hands full with a lot of responsibility. Nothing needs to be fixed if it's not broken. It's usually just occasional grandstanding activities. You know, longest household names, most fashionable, Kingdom sports teams, and even architect design." Tonithy takes the liberty of answering with elaborating details.
Hm. So not so different, but still different." Galivinth comments.
"Yeah. Funny enough, that makes the most sense to me too, kiddo. By the way, if you don't mind me prying, was there something you were hoping to receive aid in when you came here?"
"No, not really. Naeth suggested that I take a break and talk to my father for a bit."Galivinth answers.
"I see. You were practicing for Conquest Bout, right? How's that been going so far?"
"It's been going alright, I think. I've learned a lot from Naeth teaching me for several months, but I'm not sure if there's been any big changes between the beginning and now. I mean, there is visible progress, but probably not enough to be a good teammate." Galivinth explains.
"Sounds like quite the endeavor! This is merely my personal observation of your person as a whole, but you don't strike me as the athlete type at all. I have a hunch Trivisty favors you instead. You seem like a young scholar in the making, so I'll ask: Is it the physical aspect that you're particularly struggling with?"
"Who is Trivisty? And more so both. Casting and physical requirements. I have about three spells memorized, but it's hard casting in the heat of the moment. Everyone else seems to be thinking at the speed of sound, and I barely know how to react to someone just looking in my general direction."
"Hmm! Maybe what you need is a method to act preemptively. A little handicap for a dabbler such as yourself." Tonithy reasons while bringing his right hand up to his face and immediately begins stroking his digits over his thin facial hair.
"Oh! And Trivisty is the Cryonean God of knowledge." He adds.
"You mean something that'll help me think faster? Like a mental training exercise?" Galivinth asks.
"No, something that'll allow you to act faster. Like a gadget made specifically to accommodate your casting output. I can craft something that'll give you an edge where you need it, just until you're used to the pace of the matches."
"Oh. That kinda' sounds cool, but isn't that also kind of like cheating?" Galivinth asks.
"Technically, yes. Without a doubt it is. However, I think some sort of argument can be made for someone in your position. Possibly. My opinion holds no sway over the rules of the sport, but maybe it can be a convincing enough argument to get all participants to empathize with your situation and overlook the aid you're getting." Tonithy answers.
"You really think they'd make an exception for me?"
"No. I strongly doubt everyone would be open to it, BUT! The answer still lies within the shadow of the unknown. We won't know until someone makes the inquiry. Seeing as how I've got the free time and invested interest; I'll voluntarily be the one to ask." The elder cryonean announces with a smile and nod of his head. Tonithy then rises from his seat and heads over to the large steel storage cabinet within the room and peels it open to reveal what lies within. Various accessories and objects such as several goggles, a couple of vests, half a dozen staffs of various lengths, and a couple of boxes fill the interior - from them, Tonithy leans down to grab one of the three feet tall metal boxes and carries it over to the counter to place it down.