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Adana's doing some touch-ups on her wings. She's got them both off of her, there was something - weird about the balance earlier. She thinks it has something to do with the feather placement, if she just tweaks it a little here and there -
She gets a summon.
Damnation. She's not even ready - ugh, she might miss the summon entirely and that will bother her. She hates missing summons, hates missing chances of persuading someone to let her have a phone so she can talk to her brother or her father, hates missing chances to help people even if they won't give her comm access. But she also dislikes doing rush work, especially when she's going to reattach her wings and have to wear them, and have them feel wrong for the entirety of the summon. She does rush work anyway. Her wings are reattached, she flexes them, finds them feeling just as wrong and unbalanced and icky. But then she accepts the summon, somewhat late.
...
Okay, she was a bit late to answer the summon, but not that late. Where is everyone? Why doesn't she have a binding?
"Summoner?" she asks, confused, and then she looks down at the summoning circle.
Oh, that explains everything. Children drew this. It's done in colorful chalk, in all kinds of colors - really it's only happenstance that it turns out to be a circle at all, around the outside are squares and triangles and flowers and little drawings of cute creatures. The circle itself is done mostly in lime green, but it looks like it was touched up after by someone with a steadier hand and hot pink chalk. Okay, well, no biggie, some kids are going to get grounded, but maybe she can sweet talk their parents into comm access.
Or. Or she could ditch the wings, pretend to be human, and pretend she's lost and needs to call her dad. Technically true. She doesn't know where she is, and she does actually need to call her dad. Just - half truths, she hasn't gotten any better at lying in the past two years.
Wings come off and get turned to air, and then off she walks.
She realizes pretty quickly that she isn't on Earth. Or Luna, for that matter, or even Mars. She's on - some planet called Barrayar? Obviously she is - very, very far from home.
Adana finds a place to sit, and think, and try not to be frightened. She weighs pros and cons in her mind, weighs her options, and then comes to a decision. It's not like she's going to die of old age, and there's a lot of good a lone, unbound angel can do on a planet that obviously doesn't know about daeva. She just needs to - adapt. Figure out what's going on, deal with it, and use her angel abilities for good.
She stands, and then asks for directions to the nearest hospital. She's got work to do.
ask_nicely
middlingalong
"Sure. When we get to the hospital you'll be able to see a fountain from it, and if you go that way, just across the square, yellow awning. The room service has fantastic honey groats if you get the breakfast."
middlingalong
"Oh, but, I'm not completely sure on whether Ma Bagrov will gouge you if you go in with a galactic accent. Do you have enough of a budget?"
ask_nicely
"Eeeeh. Depends, how expensive are we talking?"
She has no money. None. She also has no idea how to turn this line of questioning away from something that doesn't require her to lie, because he'd notice if she did, and then it would be - mostly over. Adana's pretty sure she's coming off as an airhead, but - that's fine. If it's a plausible story for why she's here, then it works.
She has no money. None. She also has no idea how to turn this line of questioning away from something that doesn't require her to lie, because he'd notice if she did, and then it would be - mostly over. Adana's pretty sure she's coming off as an airhead, but - that's fine. If it's a plausible story for why she's here, then it works.
middlingalong
"Eenh - maybe a couple hundred marks a night? Do you even have marks? Did you get your currency changed?"
middlingalong
"Gonna ask one more time about the Betan embassy. It's ten minutes' walk, hardly out of your way."
ask_nicely
Right, well, Adana frankly doesn't care if she comes off as kind of crazy to Random Helpful Person, going to the Betan embassy wouldn't help anything and this guy seems to be the sort that would check up on her later. Best to not even play that game.
"No, I'm fine, really. Thank you, though."
"No, I'm fine, really. Thank you, though."
middlingalong
"You have no local currency, you have nowhere to stay, you don't want to go to the embassy, at this point I think it would be actually irresponsible of me to just drop you off at the hospital and wave. I have a Betan aunt, would that be more comfortable? I can get you my Betan aunt to talk to."
ask_nicely
Adana weighs her options. She weighs them against the sort of persona she's giving off, if she can manage to get away with what she needs to do while under someone else's roof and all of the - stuff that entails. Worth it, to get a better handle of the culture?
... Yes. Barely.
"I can borrow a guest room, if you're worried?" she says, playing up the 'vapid but pleasant airhead' a bit. "If you let me - I don't know, do helpful things in exchange for it. The Betan aunt isn't necessary, though, I'm fine anywhere."
... Yes. Barely.
"I can borrow a guest room, if you're worried?" she says, playing up the 'vapid but pleasant airhead' a bit. "If you let me - I don't know, do helpful things in exchange for it. The Betan aunt isn't necessary, though, I'm fine anywhere."
middlingalong
"All right, swell. I don't know that Mother'll let you pick up chores around the house, but you won't be putting us out, th'house is big. I can wait while you see if the hospital has a use for, ah, you."
ask_nicely
"It probably does," says Adana, with a smile. "Uh - are you sure you'd like to wait, though? I can get directions, show up at your house after?"
middlingalong
"Well, how late are you planning to stay?" Ivan asks, looking at the sun. "If you're going to be having an exciting galactic adventure you'll want to adjust to the time zone. Besides, house is a bit far to walk, I'd drive you."
ask_nicely
'Until I'm done' is not an appropriate answer here. Hmm, and it would be - very suspicious of her to walk into a hospital in front of him, then walk out, and the next day the news says 'Miracles at hospital' on that specific day.
Well, there's a way to deal with this problem.
"Fair point, I don't want to be sleeping on the job," she says, musingly. "I'll go in, check if they do volunteer work, then come back tomorrow and actually volunteer?"
At another hospital.
Well, there's a way to deal with this problem.
"Fair point, I don't want to be sleeping on the job," she says, musingly. "I'll go in, check if they do volunteer work, then come back tomorrow and actually volunteer?"
At another hospital.
ask_nicely
She smiles at him. If she were not actually immortal and going to be fine no matter what happened, some poor girl in the same situation she's pretending to be in would probably be very thankful. It just - happens to be kind of unhelpful in her current situation.
"Thanks," she says, genuinely, anyway.
"Thanks," she says, genuinely, anyway.
ask_nicely
And then, hospital!
She waves at Ivan, says, "I'll be back in a bit, this shouldn't take long."
In she goes! First thing to do, see if she can switch dialects, it seemed the one she picked was - foreign. Helpful for acting confused, and she'll use it, but as to right now - nope.
"Excuse me," she says politely to a receptionist in a Barrayaran dialect, "I got directions here from a friend, but I think I'm at the wrong hospital. The one I'm looking for starts with an - M? I think?"
She waves at Ivan, says, "I'll be back in a bit, this shouldn't take long."
In she goes! First thing to do, see if she can switch dialects, it seemed the one she picked was - foreign. Helpful for acting confused, and she'll use it, but as to right now - nope.
"Excuse me," she says politely to a receptionist in a Barrayaran dialect, "I got directions here from a friend, but I think I'm at the wrong hospital. The one I'm looking for starts with an - M? I think?"
ask_nicely
"That's the one!" says Adana, brightly. "Do you think you could give me directions to it, please?"
"Sure, but it's nowhere near here -" The receptionist produces a plastic flimsy and draws a simple map of the intervening roads between this hospital and Marin.
ask_nicely
"Yeah, I figured, you'd think I would have realized I was in the wrong neighborhood before I walked in here, sometimes I swear it's like I'm blind," snorts Adana, smiling. "Thank you very much!"
ask_nicely
"Me, too," she agrees. "Actually - it's made me think of doing some volunteer work, do you know where I go to sign on for that kind of thing?"
So she can - well, not lie, but answer questions with only half-truths better.
So she can - well, not lie, but answer questions with only half-truths better.