This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Ari is out on a nice walk. It's never cold enough for his tastes in Vancouver (why'd he have to pick the one city in Canada that hardly goes below zero?) but it's January, so it's at least pleasantly brisk. He outright refused Sally's offer of a coat. Her mothering instinct would be more appropriate if he hadn't grown up in a climate that shaded from "harsh Midwestern November" to "the Arctic Circle."
He reaches a nice little coffee shop he found near the harbor and decides to go in for one of those icy coffee slush drinks they have. He opens the door.
That is not the nice little coffee shop.
He looks through the glass of the window. That is the coffee shop. He looks through the door. That is not the coffee shop.
He shrugs and makes his way in, trusting in his knowledge of the Ways and his ability to turn most threats into gravel.
Inside the not-coffee shop is a bar. It's a nice bar. The floors are clean, the furnishings look fairly high-quality, there's a cool illusion of exploding stars out the window; he's willing to give this one a firm three stars on decor alone. He strides up to the counter and knocks to see if he can summon a bartender of some kind.
bitterchill
bitterchill
He laughs. "It's Canada, I pronounced it the same way when I first arrived there. Nice place, very polite people. Usually cold, which is a taste of home. How about you? Where do you reign over in Magic Plant World?"
powershines
"The country's called Corona, but my parents are still alive and I'm very much behind in general education so I'm not in charge of anything yet."
bitterchill
"Ah, general education, the bane of us hermit-children. When I arrived in Vancouver I could tell you the proper form of address for anything from a shelleycobb to the royal triumvirate together, but I punched a taxi in the face because I thought it was going to eat me. Taxis," he adds belatedly, "being large metal carriages that move very fast with people inside of them for complicated reasons that I don't really understand." He grins. "I won the fight."
bitterchill
"Nah, just the general front area. Faces are an abstract concept. Anyway, I punched it and it broke and my natively Canadian friend Sally was very embarrassed on my behalf."
powershines
"Most of the things I'm having to learn are more social. I had enough books to learn about - carriages and the like. My friend helps, with the telepathy moss."
bitterchill
"Social stuff is hard! It's still kind of weird to talk to people without an underlying context of social hierarchy, I can only guess how weird it is to talk to people who aren't the one and only person you had ever met. And friends are good for helping like that! What's your friend like, apparently he helped you out a window?"
powershines
"He was being chased in the forest where the tower is, and he climbed up because he figured a doorless tower couldn't be inhabited and it would be a safe place to rest, but I was there. And he was too tired to climb back down right away. I gave him a muffin and then made him leave and promise not to tell anyone where I was, because I was scared - Gothel was out at the time - and he climbed most of the way but then he fell and -" Skip skip - "couldn't leave right then, and then he had the idea that I might be the lost princess, so I climbed my hair down and went with him to the capital."
powershines
"Yes. And my more recognizable name. Everybody except my friend and my parents and the ones of the palace staff I've introduced myself to already knows me as Claribel."
bitterchill
"That sounds... stressful? If you'd rather be called Rapunzel, I mean, since you asked me to call you that."
powershines
"I'm used to Rapunzel. Claribel's a fine name. I'm learning to answer to it. But when it doesn't matter I might as well be Rapunzel."
bitterchill
"Ah, alright then. I'm glad you have a good friend and that you got out of your tower and that you're a princess. All of those are good things."
bitterchill
Ari smiles and turns back to his coffee. It's one of those ridiculous confectionary drinks, because Ari is secure enough in his masculinity not to pretend that he likes coffee black.
bitterchill
"Oh." He considers this. "Well, she was, actually, the one who told me that, but she- well, there's a difference between being nice because it's the right thing to do and being nice because it's... there as an option, I guess. I mean, she'd taken me in, so I suppose it was easier to keep me happy than not. Locking me in a tower being more trouble than it's worth, as I think we agreed."
bitterchill
"Oh, you can do a million things with milkteeth. Long as you're not squeamish, at least. They're a power source, something to do with the essential magic of children's innocence. They go bad when the kid comes of age, it messes up the thaumaturgical connection, but for seventeen years you're golden. And blood, well, blood's the table salt of ritual, you can put it anywhere. She made sure the draw was all safe, too, and gave me lots of soup and red meat for the week after. Very decent of her. She said she'd been doing it for centuries, so she had the practice."
bitterchill
"No, it was one at a time, she said it was neater that way. I guess there must be some others running around, but I've never met any."
powershines
"They don't even visit her? Or is she just too hard to keep track of what with moving around all the time...?"
bitterchill
"I'd... guess the latter. She taught me to navigate the Nevernever, but I- don't know that I could've found her if she was carting a kid around. She never seemed to hide herself, really, but... maybe it's harder to actually track someone down in the wilds than it is to find your way to the nearest nymph pool? I don't know, I would have tried to visit, maybe she just didn't want anyone showing up while she was paying attention to childrearing. She did tell me about them, sometimes. They all had magic, that's why she picked them."