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Ranara and her little daughter Azabel move to Urtho's Tower when the latter can say six words ("up", "mama", "milk", "no", "now", and "please") and hasn't started to walk yet. Ranara sets up to teach little children to read, ones who don't have evident Gifts yet - Ranara herself has Mindspeech, is all, with about a classroom's worth of range. Azabel sits in on classes, worn on her mother's back or later plopped in a corner with toys or, when she's only four, plopped in a corner with a book, younger than the other kids in the class. When Azabel has in fact sat through her mother's curriculum she is turned somewhat loose, to walk very carefully up and down and around the Tower, exploring.
smol bell in urtho's tower
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small-and-alone
:Mmm:
He paces back and forth some more.
:- Have you ever kissed anyone?:
anticipating_night
She shakes her head. Is this conversation growing subtext. Please don't do that, conversation.
small-and-alone
:Do you think you'd notice if you wanted to? I guess it'd be kind of silly to never kiss someone because you don't know what it's like, but it seems like people must get un-stuck from that somehow:
small-and-alone
:Mmm. That's a pretty useful way to be, I guess:
Ma'ar paces for a few moments longer, staring into space, and then changes the subject and asks out loud how her evening was.
anticipating_night
Apparently she's been doing various useful magic for townsfolk today - shored up the foundations of the bridge, patched a retaining wall.
small-and-alone
This is a much more comfortable topic! Ma'ar asks questions and offers to help with that tomorrow if anything else needs to be done around town.
small-and-alone
He will happily do that!
...Does anything more awkward come up with Eliana at dancing that evening?
She doesn't escalate or anything, just arranges to be near him for much of the dancing and smiles at him a lot.
small-and-alone
This is still more awkward than it was before, now that he has the 'crush' hypothesis, which Ma'ar feels kind of bad about. He tries to smile back a reasonable but not overly encouraging amount, and does eventually relax enough to just enjoy the dancing.
Eliana appears to lack an excuse to ask him to walk her home this time but lingers a little hopefully after the dance anyway.
small-and-alone
...Well, Ma'ar isn't absolutely sure that he doesn't or wouldn't have a crush on her, so maybe he'll linger a bit as well, and - see if he can learn more about her virtues? It feels like a lot of the problem is that he doesn't know her at all.
He asks her, somewhat haltingly, what life in the village is normally like for her.
"Oh, I have to help with milking the cows and making cheese all day. On top of laundry and mending and sweeping out the house... - do you want some cheese? If you want to walk me home I can give you some cheese."
small-and-alone
Aaaaaaaaah! Decisions on the spot! (Ma'ar tries very hard and manages to keep almost all of the aaaa off his face.) On the one hand that was a very boring answer? On the other hand he's...not not enjoying this interaction, and maybe Azabel has a point that this is worth practicing and also that Eliana's expectations are based on him leaving town in a few days.
"Sure, I could do that."
She beams at him and walks with him back to her house, keeping rather close to him as they go. "You can come in," she tells him at the door. "I'll just be a minute getting you a cheese."
She has several small brothers playing on the floor; they look up at him when he enters. Eliana ducks into a cellar.
small-and-alone
Ma'ar hasn't played with little children in a long time and isn't sure what to do, but he smiles at them.
One of them offers him a corncob.
small-and-alone
....The edible kind of corncob or not? Ma'ar crosses the room and takes it, bobbing his head at the child, and then looks around for cues regarding what he's supposed to do with it.
The corncob is denuded of food. There is absolutely no sign of what he is expected to do with it.
Eliana comes up from the cellar and presents Ma'ar with a palm-sized cheese round.
small-and-alone
(Ma'ar glances at it, and then vaguely waves the corncob around while making eye contact with the child, until Eliana is back.)
"Wow! Thank you." He holds out his hand to take the cheese round, looking intently into her eyes.
(While trying to imagine kissing her, however "kissing" works, and figure out whether he would like it or at least find it tolerable.)
"You're welcome! It's good on brown bread."
small-and-alone
"Thank you! I'll, er, keep that - in mind...?" Ma'ar slips the round of cheese into his pocket and then stands there, unsure what's expected from here. He keeps his eyes fixed on Eliana's face, though, that seems robustly Expected.