"Perception magic is about observing the world without changing it: reading minds, seeing magic, scrying or pastwatching. Learning to see magic within a short distance is relatively trivial; scrying distant events is difficult. As for the impossible, the classic example for my discipline is the old dream of seeing the future." See, he is answering Kadlawen's questions.

"My work as a navigator involves sensing currents of aether out to a radius of more than two miles; it has taken me more than two centuries to have such a large range while retaining enough detail to be useful." 

Kadlawen appreciates the fact that he’s answering his questions, even though it would’ve been trivial to instead answer them without large conversational delays and vaguely frustrating evasion! It’d be implausible if every alien he met was perfectly charming, he supposes. 

He continues nodding and looking attentive and rapt and so on and so forth.

"Augmentation is the art of performing magic on oneself, usually to improve one's natural abilities in some way. Of the people on the Covenant, Kirill is a specialist in physical augmentation—enhanced strength and agility, faster healing, tougher skin. Su-Jin has some mental augmentations, particularly memory and reaction time. And, of course, most of us have the standard life and health augments. It is rare for anyone to die of old age younger than one hundred, and even rarer for a disease epidemic to spread beyond a single city before it is halted." But not, his tone implies, entirely unknown. 

"Basic health and lifespan boosts are trivial. Anything involving the mind is more complex and requires more careful study. Giving oneself abilities that one's species does not naturally possess is difficult to impossible." 

He takes a moment to process this.

”- um. Um. Um! My apologies for interrupting, really, but- hold on a minute, you die of old age?”

"Most of our species do, yes. Yours don't?" 

“No! That’s completely and utterly horrifying- we have, we have animals that die of old age and it’s still a tragedy whenever one of them dies, there’s a reason the Travelling Undertaker is generally considered abominable- that isn’t how- gods. Would I be treading on any particular cultural- I don’t know how to word it, I- would you be offended if I offered to make you unaging, I go to animal shelters sometimes and do it on long lines of adorable puppies, it’s- sapient beings shouldn’t do that.”

"Well, I certainly wouldn't object," Jacob says while everyone else is still processing.

This might be the most Kadlawen has seen him smile so far.

- huh, he actually has a pretty nice smile-

Kadlawen’s staff and wand flick out, the wand traces out some intricate shape and he mutters ‘kelrelo hä kaki, kelrelo hä kaki’, and his staff hits the ground with a ‘thump’ that seems, perhaps, more booming than it ought to be-

And then Jacob feels a sensation akin to being dunked in pleasantly lukewarm sparkling water, alongside sensations less describable and no less pleasant, and he need no longer worry about the wear of the ages.

The smile gets bigger.

"Thank you," Jacob says, as sincerely as he knows how.

...he attempts to gauge Kadlawen's likely reaction to being kissed and/or hugged. 

“You’re welcome!” he chirps, beaming.

(He doesn’t seem like he’d be at all displeased to be the recipient of either of those things.)

"Really, I—thank you—" 

Jacob grabs Kadlawen and kisses him. 

And Kadlawen beams even more brightly, and - melts. 

And wraps his arms around him, and kisses back, with almost-certainly-magic-aided skill.

He tastes like honey.

Delicious. 

He keeps the kiss relatively short, in deference to their audience, but is obviously reluctant to pull away. 

The audience...appreciates his restraint. Sort of. 

Cas is having some kind of emotional reaction to this and isn't sure what. He'll work it out later. 

Linden, looking exceedingly awkward and staring at anything but Jacob and Kadlawen, clears his throat. 

Kadlawen, too, seems a bit reluctant to pull away. 

“Um, my apologies if anyone’s too dreadfully discomfited- and I can still render people unaging for the next five minutes without having to muck around with casting again, so long as I hold the spell, if anyone else is interested?”

There are a couple of takers. The rest want a bit longer to think about it. 

Thus, with all due haste: they are booped.

“... um, I suppose I interrupted the magic lecture, didn’t I- but I might prefer a written version, anyways, I don’t think that I click well with your lecture style and it probably ought to end up written anyways, for general distribution? And in that case we can probably continue on with regular touring-“

Fountains! Magically-enhanced bathrooms! Sunrooms, stocked with assorted exotic flora! Ocassional glances in Jacob’s direction, curiously balanced between the twin sentiments of ‘mm, snack’ and something less immediately comprehensible!

Jacob gives him appreciative glances right back. He's a little concerned about Cas, but they can talk that out in private later. 

Tour! And, eventually, Jacob will suggest that they reconvene with the rest of the crew for a meal of some kind. 

“Sure! I think that I’ll go ahead and attend to various other miscellanea, while you’re busy with that - I can come back in an hour or two?”

"Yes, that should be acceptable." He smiles at Kadlawen as they part ways. 

Smiling back: occurs!

And then he’s off to do Miscellaneous Kadlawen Things for two hours, and they can attend to their internal affairs.

 They re-gather everyone, find a dining hall big enough to accommodate them all, and eat. Jacob uses the opportunity to lay down a few ground rules for his crew, and also to let them know they have the option to be immortal. He is unusually cheerful. 

That's nice for him.

Casimir is unusually quiet and withdrawn. Several people notice; he brushes off their questions. 

"Casimir," he says under his breath at some point.