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Two girls are moving their hands through the air and speaking together in perfect parallel.
Two girls are looking expectantly at a circle of red chalk on their floor.
Two girls have done something exceptionally stupid.
Nick in Elcenia
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Sigh. "Fine. Nicolas Streiss."
"How do you prefer to render that in Leraal characters?"
"I don't know Leraal, could you do two or three possible transliterations and pronounce them?"
"My pronunciation of foreign names isn't the best. 'Nikolas' is easy enough, but, uh - Satress? Asteriss?"
"Try S-ter-ei-ss."
"That, uh, vowel, doesn't work in Leraal, although we can represent it with a combination if you have one you like. Uh, I can put a sed and a ten together without anything first if you want me to, though. S'teriss?" she attempts.
"That's close enough, thanks."
"Nikolas Steriss. And your address?"
He names a room number at Binaarlav.
She writes this down. "The primary Binaaralav account holder has authorized a supervised draw expense account for you, which means that he'll be able to look at whatever you're spending money on but the stamp will be on you. Do you want to receive your stamp now?"
"Yes, please." He holds out his right hand, palm up.
And she picks up a wooden octagonal prism, taps it to where she's been writing her notes, and then taps his hand. "You're all set."
"Have a nice day." He walks out and finds a bench to sit on. What does the newspaper have to say?
Rathadaar Kerik is starring in "Salute the Night". Noted advocacy charity Voices for All is spinning off a division to be its own organization, called Voices from Afar, specializing in immigrant and tourist issues. Pineapples are going to be expensive this year because of an Egerian blight. Someone tried to burn down a Sand Dusk Chanter temple but the fire mages on call stopped them and brought them into custody. The wards have been re-installed over Paraasilan and the old ones decommissioned; there is more space to the south and west for any would-be developers and the land is going fast, mostly to residential builders. Pleia's war with Mekand is going well for Mekand (yay). The national convention of witches and witch suppliers will be held in Mifaar this year.
Wars, ouch. They're probably more devastating and last longer since the aggrieved party can't just float away. He's not sure he wants to know, but... Does the newspaper have a casualty count?
Not a total for the entire engagement, but in the battle it's specifically reporting on, Mekand reports three "irrecoverable losses" and Pleia's deaths are estimated at thirty.
Nick looks a little green. Thirty- That's worse than any pirate attack, worse than an entire island village burning down. And it was in one day.
It takes a minute of deep breaths to remind him that thirty all at once by violence really isn't that bad, compared to less noisy deaths by starvation and accident and disease and old age in a hundred other places.
He tucks the newspaper into a pocket, intending to recycle it out of sheer habit. Then he looks for the magic laundry basket he originally came out for.
It takes a minute of deep breaths to remind him that thirty all at once by violence really isn't that bad, compared to less noisy deaths by starvation and accident and disease and old age in a hundred other places.
He tucks the newspaper into a pocket, intending to recycle it out of sheer habit. Then he looks for the magic laundry basket he originally came out for.
There are magic laundry baskets available at a furniture store.
He buys one. He's getting hungry, though.
<Keo, would you mind if I get something at a restaurant instead of the cafeteria? I won't make a habit of it.>
<Keo, would you mind if I get something at a restaurant instead of the cafeteria? I won't make a habit of it.>
<Don't pay more than three aaberik for a meal, but that's fine.>
He doesn't respond in words, just a little mental acknowledgment. He picks a restaurant offering food below three aaberik at random - Tahaan's.
Tahaan's is apparently a "Saraanlan" restaurant. The menu has "substrates" and "flavorings" with a warning that you shouldn't put more than two flavorings unless you know what you're doing.
He doesn't recognize the names of about half the flavorings. Feeling adventurous, he chooses rice with blueberry and something random from the stranger half of the list - "chocolate."
And in short order he is brought blue-brown, sweet-smelling rice pudding.
He can see what they meant by the warning not to use more than two flavors. Even two is pushing it, especially since both his mix-ins are so sweet. It's still delicious, though.
When he's done, he tries to figure out how to pay for it.
When he's done, he tries to figure out how to pay for it.