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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
maybeso
May is at the Avalon the next afternoon with a shiny
asteptotheright
"I'm fine. I just..." he trails off. "I've always been an introvert, but when my mother died, I withdrew. For almost a year Jaromira was the only other human being I would talk to. I've gotten better since then, obviously, but I'm not good at figuring out what's appropriate or healthy concerning human relationships. ...I don't know if I'm actually in love with you yet, but I seem to be very infatuated at the very least. I do not want to get clingy or pushy or otherwise problematic, but I'm not completely certain where the boundaries are."
maybeso
"I... haven't noticed any problems yet? Is there something in particular you're worried will happen or do you just have generalized anxiety about your ability to read signals and make guesses?"
asteptotheright
"The latter. I didn't think I had done anything wrong yet, but--I want you to know that if I do, you can tell me and I will back off. I don't expect to, but. People usually don't."
maybeso
"Okay, noted. I wasn't really worried about it, for whatever that's worth in assuaging your concerns. I can use my words, I did not expect any such words to fall on deaf ears, and if they did I can go all pointy."
asteptotheright
Kanimir shows her his list. Large chunks of it are the same as hers, but there are some areas where they don't overlap.
maybeso
"All right, comparing and contrasting..."
She pulls up her own list, quizzes him on why he included the meanings she didn't include, explains the ones she has and he doesn't. The goal is consensus; ideally neither of them is casting a spell that either one thinks has been done wrong.
She pulls up her own list, quizzes him on why he included the meanings she didn't include, explains the ones she has and he doesn't. The goal is consensus; ideally neither of them is casting a spell that either one thinks has been done wrong.
asteptotheright
He focused more than her on the possible duration of the spell, and on reflection that rune over there might be better suited to a magic item than a scroll.
maybeso
And she was trying to do too much with incantation and picks up a couple runes that she'd been planning to cover with extra French nouns.
"This look about right?" she asks, when they've merged the sets into something agreeable.
"This look about right?" she asks, when they've merged the sets into something agreeable.
asteptotheright
"I think so. It would be better if there was a third party to look it over for us, of course, but..."
maybeso
"But. I mean, I guess we could wait until Jaromira or Daphne gets around to reading through the textbook? Are they likely to?"
maybeso
"When do you think they'll be through the chapters on the meanings so they could triangulate?"
asteptotheright
"By...Wednesday, I think. Those two allocate their mental resources differently because they're more social than we are, but they're both still very intelligent and they read fairly fast."
maybeso
"Hm. We weren't too far off from each other. What say we go from here and try to work out - a few different ways to diagram a spell out of the meanings, take our time, but not cast it until they do some homework? We don't want to be a statistic. We wouldn't even be accessible enough as a statistic to deter anyone on the margin."
maybeso
"How convenient. Okay, lemme show you my spreadsheet."
Her spreadsheet is huge. It has rows for runes (page number and letter orderings) and columns for meanings (all the dozens of them). Sorted correctly, it will provide lists of options and their amounts in each meaning for everything on their consensus list.
"You start with 43-B and I'll start with 77-A and we go from there?" she suggests, indicating the most important meaning and two runes that are stronger in that than anything else.
Her spreadsheet is huge. It has rows for runes (page number and letter orderings) and columns for meanings (all the dozens of them). Sorted correctly, it will provide lists of options and their amounts in each meaning for everything on their consensus list.
"You start with 43-B and I'll start with 77-A and we go from there?" she suggests, indicating the most important meaning and two runes that are stronger in that than anything else.
maybeso
"I don't have all the dictionary runes in there just yet because data entry is tedious as hell and I checked everything in there twice," May mentions, "so the dictionary will still be useful if none of the combinations in the sheet suit us."
And she gets to work starting from 77-A. It covers two meanings she wants and four she doesn't; she will need to add some things and subtract some things... Scribble scribble.
And she gets to work starting from 77-A. It covers two meanings she wants and four she doesn't; she will need to add some things and subtract some things... Scribble scribble.