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Ari is... so, so lost. He didn't know this amount of lost was physically possible. One minute he's in a briar maze deep in Winter picking frostberries for a pie, then he takes four left turns and he exits the briar and he's in a temperate forest. Not even any snow on the ground. He turns around and there's no thicket to be seen.
He puts the frostberry pouch in his backpack and mutters the incantation to open a Way back to the mortal realm; he might land somewhere dangerous, but better endangered in the mortal realm than completely lost in the Nevernever. And... nothing. Literally nothing happens, no backlash or fizzling or anything that would indicate that he fucked up a spell, but the kind of nothing that happens when you don't have a spell to cast.
In something of a panic, he tests that he still has magic by punching a nearby tree, which splinters and crashes to the ground. "So that's still working, I guess," he mutters. "Punching systems: still online."
So, recap: magic works, he just got snatched out of deep Winter territory and put into something that kind of looks like the Wyld, and the Ways are on the fritz. Either something big is screwing with him or he's very much not in Kansas anymore. Either way, he'd better figure out what the hell is going on.
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bitterchill
imeanforever
"I still don't get your references, but I don't think that to whatever extent that was a serious suggestion it would work."
bitterchill
"Your lack of faith in my muscleman leaflet disguise wounds me. I am wounded."
imeanforever
"It definitely wouldn't work to disguise you as a leaflet. Leaflets are all female and a lot shorter than you."
bitterchill
"Are you implying that I would not make a beautiful woman, Promise? Because I will prove you wrong if it is the last thing I do. Mustache and all."
bitterchill
Not that Ari wasn't already grinning, because he's practically always grinning, but Ari grins even wider. "There! I have achieved genuine, audible laughter. I have made you laugh, that is the best thing I've done today. Previous champion breaking Tacky Creep's sofa, new champion making you laugh. This is my life's achievement and you are really freaking cute."
bitterchill
Hm. He may have been a bit subtle on that one.
Come to think of it, do fairies even... Well, Tacky Creep did, that much was obvious. But do leaflets... "Do leaflets have, uh, romance? Of any kind? Out of curiosity."
Come to think of it, do fairies even... Well, Tacky Creep did, that much was obvious. But do leaflets... "Do leaflets have, uh, romance? Of any kind? Out of curiosity."
imeanforever
"Do leaflets in particular? I don't think we're particularly unusual as fairies go."
bitterchill
"Well, you are the species I'm likely to spend most of my time around for quite a while. And is that a "yes"?"
imeanforever
"Fairies sometimes conduct things that could be described as romances, complicated of course by the vassaling business."
bitterchill
"So, do you in particular have romantic inclinations? Because you're very smart, and really nice, and extremely pretty, and if we're going to live together for a few centuries I'd like to know whether my next few weeks would be better spent trying to sweep you off your feet or taking very long showers."
bitterchill
"Sure. Sorry for putting you on the spot."
Ari is disappointed, obviously, but there's no use carrying on after you've been shot down. He can ask her about the dangers of sleeping with other fairies once the awkwardness has simmered down. If all else fails, he knows how to conjure a blank body out of ectoplasm, which is mildly creepy, but any port in a storm.
Ari is disappointed, obviously, but there's no use carrying on after you've been shot down. He can ask her about the dangers of sleeping with other fairies once the awkwardness has simmered down. If all else fails, he knows how to conjure a blank body out of ectoplasm, which is mildly creepy, but any port in a storm.
bitterchill
There's not much he can say to that, really.
He takes out a bit of his pocket clay and starts fiddling with it. Can he make a bird? Only time will tell.
He takes out a bit of his pocket clay and starts fiddling with it. Can he make a bird? Only time will tell.
imeanforever
"I can see the edge of the Snows from here," she says after a while. "But I don't think we'd better set up very close to the edge. Especially if you like the cold."
bitterchill
"I agree and I agree! Both safety and cold are good things," Ari says cheerfully.
A thought strikes him. "You don't, like, secretly hate the cold and you're tolerating it for my sake, or something? I'd feel bad about that."
A thought strikes him. "You don't, like, secretly hate the cold and you're tolerating it for my sake, or something? I'd feel bad about that."
imeanforever
"I'm native to an autumn climate. It will be colder than I'd really like, but I can keep some or all of the court warm and it's comfortable enough for a flyover, or will be when I've got new clothes. It won't do me any harm in the intervening time."
imeanforever
"I don't think I knew mortals liked the cold, come to think of it."
bitterchill
"I'm a weird mortal! I grew up in the deep reaches of the Winter Court. There are two climates back home: cold, and death. Everything else kind of feels like a lazy summer day."
imeanforever
"And where you grew up affects what temperatures you can tolerate?"