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It is a lovely Saturday morning. Feathered children are watching cartoons; furred adults are eating brunch; scaled teenagers - one scaled teenager in particular, actually - is arguing with the proprietor of a magic shop.
"How did these items get made if there's no way to learn magic? Are the magicians homeschooling their children and not writing any books? How did you learn?"
"Half this stuff is antiques," says the shopkeep. "Look, asking me a dozen times isn't gonna make the answer more to your liking. I don't have Hogwarts in the basement, deal with it."
"But where do you get the stuff that isn't antique - who made the Avalon itself? - isn't anybody panicking about the medallion supply? -"
"Kid, nobody knows how to make medallions."
"But some people apparently know how to make luck charms and protection amulets!"
"I'm not going to give out my suppliers' personal information. I wouldn't do it even if you weren't annoying."
"There have to be books -"
"Does this look like a library to you?"
maybeso
asteptotheright
"I wonder if the shopkeeper would tell us about his peers or if he would protest about the competition again."
maybeso
"I don't think he could reasonably be considered to compete with people in other Avalons unless he does mail order and doesn't advertise it in his own shop."
asteptotheright
"That's true, but I don't know for sure that he would see it that way. If nothing else he might think he was competing for suppliers with them."
maybeso
"In that case the quandary is convincing him that we'll be more willing to supply him if he's cooperative."
asteptotheright
"Are there any other magic shops in this Avalon, do you know? I wouldn't expect so, but if there were we might be able to get the benefit of working with him without the awkwardness of poor first impressions."
asteptotheright
"Worth looking into, but not to the exclusion of this one," he concludes. "Alright."
asteptotheright
"Yes. You said you visit your father for holidays; where does he live? It would be worth doing to see if there was an Avalon there."
maybeso
"Middle of nowhere, B.C.. I checked and the nearest Avalon is in the middle of some different nowhere, rather than a city, but if I wanted to drive all day long I could get to Vancouver or Seattle or Spokane or Calgary."
asteptotheright
"Aha. Well, it might be worth looking into, at some point, but probably not by, say, the next time you visit."
maybeso
"I'll probably want to check in on the middle-of-nowhere-B.C. Avalon just on principle but I don't find it urgent, yeah."
asteptotheright
"Not specifically. I might develop some, if there was a reason. Perhaps I'll take the opportunity to go to Niagara. That's always worth doing." He smiles. "I still remember the first time I saw the falls--I was six, and we had just come here from Poland. Mother thought it would be a good experience for us. It was amazing."
maybeso
"I know it's not that far but when Ren decides she wants to go somewhere it's usually someplace she hasn't been, and I haven't taken the time by myself." Pause. "We could go sometime."
maybeso
"If we figure out how to turn invisible first I am totally getting up close to the falls on the wing."
asteptotheright
"...If we figure out selective invisibility can I watch, that sounds gorgeous, there should be a, a painting of that."
asteptotheright
"True. Well, I have enough of a mental image to tell that it sounds gorgeous, maybe I'll tell my sister's artist friend about that."
asteptotheright
"Um, Kelly I think her name is, they have an art class together and Kelly is significantly more enthusiastic about the whole thing than Jaromira is."