Names in the wind

Ah, things were getting philosophical. Which could be regarded as both good or bad as long as Leah kept it strictly level. Nothing inspired quite as much debate or intense emotion as philosophy, people could be quite snappy if you started poking holes in their own little beliefs.
It often wasn't intentional, just an automatic reaction to having base assumptions questioned. Leah ignored those thoughts as a smile flew naturally onto his face- ignoring the defensive bias.
"I can think of only one exception," Leah allowed idly. "There are truths that should not be touched, barriers and gates that often lead to pain and sorrow. The truth of these natures typically should be avoided. Although questions such as whether death should be abolished with the truth of life are not mine to answer, they do fall within this domain." Aware he was rambling at least a bit, Leah took a moment to consider what was being said. He chose to answer as many of her questions as he could at once.
"A man who knew everything, is not a man. They," purposefully using the word so that it extended into the female realm as well, while also indicating that gender mattered little to one who had attained all knowledge. "would not see the world as we do. He would look at a flower and see the whole world and time etched in it's form. I do not think that knowing every truth the world has to offer would do you much good." He tended to use plainer language when talking about this, he wasn't able to blend these aspects of thought together as conversationally as he could others.
"So no, I don't think I want to. It is tempting however, to say yes." Indeed, some part of Leah did yearn for that knowledge.

"That, Leah," Leo sighed, "is the difference between you and I."

Leo was a girl - young, still searching, and yet was scared of all the knowledge that she had yet to learn. "All knowledge..." she pondered. "That sounds horrible. Terribly attractive, yet horrible in the path it leaves behind. A man who knows all, as you said, is no longer a man. Just as a fish is no more a fish once he knows that his brothers go to the chopping board - no, the fish becomes future food, destroyed by the knowledge of knowing his fate and purpose. And even if that fish falls to disease or another death, he will still always have that knowledge of a hook and bait which will follow him around forevermore." Leo grinned, suddenly. "But enough of philosophy. Those are topics for shady nights of after-fights."

A glint of curiosity gleamed in her eyes. "Tell me, Leah-sir, how does the muggle world differ from magic's? I know little of either, as it is."

Perhaps it was inappropriate, but Leah couldn't help himself- as he began to laugh, the look of incredulity, incomprehension giving way to sudden realisation and mirth. Peals of mirth-filled the small compartment. It wasn't a small delicate laugh that one might expect from someone of Leah's particular build, it was a pleasant mildly pitched note, but it was certainly came from the stomach as he leaned over to one side to give himself a bit more breathing room and the opportunity to discretely brush away some tears that had managed to surface.

The thing about jokes is that they aren't always seen. It needs to flow logically. Expressed alphabetically, the line of the joke typically goes akin to 'A,c'. Obviously something is missing. The punch-line is 'C', and depending on how the person plays the joke, the sudden connection appeared humorous. Funny how that worked.

Leah took a moment to organise his thoughts. How best to organise this?
"Call it a cloud, but a cloud of webs. And each cloud is specific to a system, a family, an individual. Anyone with a altar to the cloud." Leah considered this, quantum computing was extraordinarily powerful in this day and age, to consider it a tangible thing wasn't too far-fetched.He also didn't want to paint too much of a cynical picture.
"But outside the cloud, there are towers. Great structures of engineering - beehives of heat. No magic exists within these spires. Sooner, stranger, sooner, tragic." The differences? Good grief, the main one was probably...
"Progress for the sake of progress is the motto of mundane life, better is not the best 'til we touch the face of god."

"Goodsnakes," Leo gasped. "The muggles are the strange type. Once Mummy took me to muggle London, you know. Weird place with stranger people." She giggled. "Would the web be the sky's or a spiders? If a family be in the clouds then their heads be above the ground. In a spiders, than even if the webs are high then they are connected somehow to their roots in the ground."

Leo smiled softly. "I have much to learn, I think."

Leah chucked, the amusement stemming simply from- "If I told a mundane that I could make roses appear with a swish of wood and thread, they'd be as tickled as you." Probably even worse, depending on the temperament it could become quite a bit more offensive. Suggestions of mental illness perhaps. Well, they wouldn't be as much suggestions, more point blank insinuations.
"The web belongs to the sky, but the people make sure it doesn't become a nest and fly away. They are the roots as you say." He probably wasn't doing a very good job of explaining himself because truthfully he knew more about the nature of reality then the nature of society. He travelled too much to obtain deep connections to any one single location.

Leah nodded sagely at the last comment. "We all do, Leo-lass. But I wouldn't worry overmuch, the sky is still blue no matter how much you read or write that says it red."

(OOC: Closing addresses for mock trials are a pain to write...halfarsing this atm, sorry.)

(OOC: No problem, I'm pretty gone too.)

"Well, the ocean is deep... but the sky is infinite." She giggled. "But that cannot be the end of it - when the sky burns red it bleeds blue - the end is only the beginning."

"Now... tell me about these 'mudanes' - are they something of the muggle world?"

Leah felt the urge to rebuff, and did so - playfully of course.
"But where the sky goes on forever, it reveals it's secrets if we only might look. But the ocean guards them jealously. Is that not an interesting comparison? That the ocean would conceal because it has finite secrets, yet the sky worries not, because it is infinite in its wealth." A passing visage of amusements ghost shied itself from Leah's eyes as Leo questioned him about his use of language.
"Ah, you have caught me out Leo-lass. The terms, muggle and muggleborn blister my tongue should it pass my lips or scorn my ears should they hear it brandied about." There was a bit of hyperbole going on there, but it was no worse then mentally flinching then when someone used grammar improperly in their speech. His 'mightier-then-thou' tone he tended to use when overemphasising something came through strong and true so he felt sure that Leo would pick up on his play acting. "So instead, I refer to muggles as mundanes and muggleborns as first generation magi, or just first gen. Muggle in traditional language was supposed to mean someone who was less then average, or somewhat insignificant. My rough understanding of it anyway."

"Oh, my," Leo gasped, concerned. "'Muggle' means all that?" She sighed, looking down at her hands. "I hope I haven't offended anyone."

Leo was home-grown as she was home-born. She knew little of the world - little of people. Her knowledge lay in prose and words; rhyme, and reason. Her mother had told her that if one had wisdom, they he could conquer the world. Of course, she had said 'he,' so she still was not sure how well it would translate to her.

"I know so little..."

Leah shrugged. He certainly hadn't been offended' per se, it was just like you weren't usually offended if someone used slightly bad grammar. So you could be if you were extraordinarily thin skinned, but it really wasn't all that bad.
"It's what my education on the english language taught me to believe," supplied Leah somewhat guiltily. "It could mean something different for this culture entirely. Just don't expect to see me using the word much though."

Leah chuckled at her admission of lacking in knowledge. "Pick and choose what plant to water and which to ignore. For the whole garden cannot be tended to on one's own." Education was generally a joint effort, he would not have Leo see the same hardships he had with little in the way of support from a study group.
"Are you a single child?" asked Leah, it seemed that most families now tended towards having one child.

"The only cub to the only poet-lions around," she smiled. "Mine was a hard beginning, for both my parents," she explained. Her mother was a poet - certainly no warrior. Her father, also a master of words, was only a rookie with responsibility. Both of her parents were free spirits. They were strangers to obligations - Leo, even less. And though a beloved job, Leo was still a burden of sorts.

"Although," she started," I don't consider family only those of blood relation. My siblings are found in nature; found in life, in love, and in imagination."

"What about you?" Leo asked, curious. Leah certainly seemed like the independent sort - but it would not be the first time Leo would be wrong.