Longaevi, Physically Speaking
In order to satisfy your curiosity, Lisa...
There are many different species of Longaevi, which fall into three racial categories. Mine are of the rhetoricus species, and of the particular family of Orator. Thus, if you asked Paradoxus what his name is--and if he feels sufficiently pompous at that moment--he will tell you, "Nomen mei Paradoxus Maximus de Oratore est."
The rhetoricus species has a long history. They first appeared on earth in the bibliotheca (library) of Augustine of Hippo, though I am sure that they existed somewhere before that. With Augustine, however, their recorded history begins. Now, to all Longaevi Latin is the language, the only language.
Not all Longaevi are concerned with the contemplative or linguistic life. There are, for example, Longaevi species which belong to gardens. My sister has a flock of them, though in that species a "flock" means three, just as among the more artistic species flocks are numbered in groups of nine, because there are nine muses. But there are seven in a rhetoricus flock, numbered with the seven liberal arts.
Therefore you must understand that my Longaevi follow the Roman culture in dress and behavior. They recline at table rather than sitting down to it, as we moderns will. They are very suspicious of water, even after all these centuries, because water in the Roman world was scarcely ever pure enough to drink safely. Therefore my flock insist upon having wine or beer, or unfermented grape juice. It is one of their peculiarities. At PHC they confine themselves to various juices.
The males of this flock are patrician in features, having high, broad foreheads, wide-set eyes of unusual depth and brightness, Roman noses, firm chins, and nicely turned ears. Paradoxus, as I have elsewhere explained, is the handsomest of them.
The females tend, again, towards Mediterranean beauty. They all wear their hair very long, past their waists, and braid or curl or bind it with curious ornaments of silver wire and colored stones. In full ceremonial dress, they resemble nothing so much as some statues I have seen depicting Greek maidens, for their robes are after the type of the Greek chiton. Their eyes are large, soft, and well-disposed above delicate features. Posy is perhaps a trifle rounder in face than the others, and Simile has the most pronounced cheekbones, but they are all exceedingly beautiful.
As to the particular coloring of each, crossbreeding over the years has made variation possible, and so they are not all dark-featured. Even if they were, the colors of their wings would vary. However, I will state them simply.
Paradoxus has green-gold eyes and green wings gorgeously flecked with a rich brown. He resembles Peter Pan in that he is the most vivid of them, the most immediate.
Litotes is the true Mediterranean type; his black curls and velvet-black eyes would be striking if they were not so utterly contrasted by pale skin and a languid manner. His wings are black, flecked all over with white designs which remind me of a Baroque excess.
Posy, my darling, is another of the true Romans: brown-eyed, brown-haired, but possessed of pink wings flecked with black spots.
Chiasmus, now, is an oddity. For all his dandification, he has a crop of unruly red-gold curls and sea-green eyes that make me wonder if his mother wasn't at least a gallic, if not a downright celtic. His wings are green, but far more delicate and far less glowing a color than those of Paradoxus; they are an April green, not a Junebug green.
The Twins, Deton and Polly, are alike as two peas, and blondly blue-eyed in a rosy, fresh, singularly uninteresting way. They look like country people, and act like them too. I am sometimes astonished to realize that they belong to the same family as Paradoxus and Simile. Their wings are gold-on-golden.
Simile is the most ethereal of them. Her wings are green-blue-gray, with designs in silver. I cannot tell what color her eyes are--they are the sea, and that's all--sometimes stormy blue, sometimes gray and calm, sometimes shining greeny blue, sometimes cerulean. She has a lot of hair that is even blacker than Litotes', but usually coils it all up.
They usually wear loose clothing in the Greek and Roman fashion, but for ceremonial occasions the males will put on gorgeous togas trimmed with tiny precious stones and embroidery. The girls wear colors appropriate to their eyes and wings, but for group ceremonies they put on white only, with fantastic headdresses in every imaginable color, and belts and armbands to match.
There are many different species of Longaevi, which fall into three racial categories. Mine are of the rhetoricus species, and of the particular family of Orator. Thus, if you asked Paradoxus what his name is--and if he feels sufficiently pompous at that moment--he will tell you, "Nomen mei Paradoxus Maximus de Oratore est."
The rhetoricus species has a long history. They first appeared on earth in the bibliotheca (library) of Augustine of Hippo, though I am sure that they existed somewhere before that. With Augustine, however, their recorded history begins. Now, to all Longaevi Latin is the language, the only language.
Not all Longaevi are concerned with the contemplative or linguistic life. There are, for example, Longaevi species which belong to gardens. My sister has a flock of them, though in that species a "flock" means three, just as among the more artistic species flocks are numbered in groups of nine, because there are nine muses. But there are seven in a rhetoricus flock, numbered with the seven liberal arts.
Therefore you must understand that my Longaevi follow the Roman culture in dress and behavior. They recline at table rather than sitting down to it, as we moderns will. They are very suspicious of water, even after all these centuries, because water in the Roman world was scarcely ever pure enough to drink safely. Therefore my flock insist upon having wine or beer, or unfermented grape juice. It is one of their peculiarities. At PHC they confine themselves to various juices.
The males of this flock are patrician in features, having high, broad foreheads, wide-set eyes of unusual depth and brightness, Roman noses, firm chins, and nicely turned ears. Paradoxus, as I have elsewhere explained, is the handsomest of them.
The females tend, again, towards Mediterranean beauty. They all wear their hair very long, past their waists, and braid or curl or bind it with curious ornaments of silver wire and colored stones. In full ceremonial dress, they resemble nothing so much as some statues I have seen depicting Greek maidens, for their robes are after the type of the Greek chiton. Their eyes are large, soft, and well-disposed above delicate features. Posy is perhaps a trifle rounder in face than the others, and Simile has the most pronounced cheekbones, but they are all exceedingly beautiful.
As to the particular coloring of each, crossbreeding over the years has made variation possible, and so they are not all dark-featured. Even if they were, the colors of their wings would vary. However, I will state them simply.
Paradoxus has green-gold eyes and green wings gorgeously flecked with a rich brown. He resembles Peter Pan in that he is the most vivid of them, the most immediate.
Litotes is the true Mediterranean type; his black curls and velvet-black eyes would be striking if they were not so utterly contrasted by pale skin and a languid manner. His wings are black, flecked all over with white designs which remind me of a Baroque excess.
Posy, my darling, is another of the true Romans: brown-eyed, brown-haired, but possessed of pink wings flecked with black spots.
Chiasmus, now, is an oddity. For all his dandification, he has a crop of unruly red-gold curls and sea-green eyes that make me wonder if his mother wasn't at least a gallic, if not a downright celtic. His wings are green, but far more delicate and far less glowing a color than those of Paradoxus; they are an April green, not a Junebug green.
The Twins, Deton and Polly, are alike as two peas, and blondly blue-eyed in a rosy, fresh, singularly uninteresting way. They look like country people, and act like them too. I am sometimes astonished to realize that they belong to the same family as Paradoxus and Simile. Their wings are gold-on-golden.
Simile is the most ethereal of them. Her wings are green-blue-gray, with designs in silver. I cannot tell what color her eyes are--they are the sea, and that's all--sometimes stormy blue, sometimes gray and calm, sometimes shining greeny blue, sometimes cerulean. She has a lot of hair that is even blacker than Litotes', but usually coils it all up.
They usually wear loose clothing in the Greek and Roman fashion, but for ceremonial occasions the males will put on gorgeous togas trimmed with tiny precious stones and embroidery. The girls wear colors appropriate to their eyes and wings, but for group ceremonies they put on white only, with fantastic headdresses in every imaginable color, and belts and armbands to match.
posted by Praelucor at 4:49 PM
3 Comments:
Wow. I think I would like to meet these Longaevi. Umm... how tall are they?
Five inches, give or take. The females are, proportionally speaking, a good bit smaller.
what on earth?
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