This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
She is sitting in the library, studying. It's her most common pastime, by hours; spending time with her sister is more enjoyable but Jaromira prefers to socialize more broadly and Katarzyna would only get in the way. This is better on net; the two of them share a room, so it isn't as though her sister's time is entirely hogged by the other girls who call this boarding school "home." Or at least "prison." Katarzyna doesn't mind it, though; the school library is excellent, and basic manners and care for the books has endeared her to the librarian to a sufficient degree to lubricate the interlibrary loans process when there's something she wants to read that they don't have.
Kanimir and Jaromira in Fabulous
fabulous_ones
"This way!" She flings herself off the clock tower and goes (not at racing pace) toward the mall.
With a shriek of delight, Katarzyna follows.
(Flying is wonderful, and the moment of freefall before she catches herself with her wings is such a rush.)
fabulous_ones
Isabella giggles and lands on the mall roof. "It's in here. We might just wind up hanging out till dinnertime, but if we don't, meet there at six?"
fabulous_ones
"My original plan when I set out was to fly around for a while and then go do homework with Xander when he's home from his skating lesson, but I can call him and tell him otherwise if it gets to be four."
fabulous_ones
"He refers to his mental model of me as 'shoulder Bella' by analogy to 'shoulder angel'. - I stopped going by Bella when I activated, it's not obvious if name aesthetics matter but they might and I didn't feel that strongly about it, but Xander's still allowed to call me that. He can draw. He's not very academic, but he's good at stuff I'm not - the clumsiness doesn't run in the family, that's just me, hence the skating lesson - he's funny, not always in a nice way but in a good-natured way, if that makes sense."
"I think it does. I don't know that I could articulate it any better but I have a mental model of a way it could be."
fabulous_ones
"Like, he'll accidentally poke fun at things in ways that actually upset people, and it'd be predictable if he were really trying not to, but he's not trying to upset people, he's just not trying very hard not to, and he's usually just aiming at keeping the overall mood light."
"Jaromira and I do something at least tangentially similar--using mental models of each other to cover areas where the other is more skilled--but I'm not sure how similar."
fabulous_ones
"I don't really use my model of Xander for any practical purpose. It cannot help me dance."
"No, that wouldn't work as well. My model of Jaromira mostly makes me more polite to people I don't enjoy interacting with."
fabulous_ones
"Oh, I have my own homemade subroutine for that, it's called 'overt expressions of diplomatic deference actually mean contempt, I'm owning this idiot so hard'."
"I try not to build habits of contempt, though; the set of people I endorse expressing contempt towards is much smaller than the set of people I am natively disinclined to be polite to."
fabulous_ones
"I don't do this with, like, peers. I do it if the principal is being a jerk, I start calling him 'sir'."
"When I start wanting to sass authority figures I usually start sprinkling my speech with 'with all due respect.' Because the respect they are due is none."
"Conveniently, it also works unironically if I say it to someone I do respect. Mind, I don't think I've ever 'sirred' somebody unironically in my life, either."