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Isabella skips down the list of cities by population to put a portal setup in Seattle. Mostly for her and her mother's and potentially Zeviana's convenience. It's the biggest city within reasonable commute distance of the clan lands.
It is here that he and Isabella are hanging out, unprotected by any wards, when someone back in New Kystle thinks to check.
"Darling!" exclaims Yerena Liandril. "I've found Adarin! That liar Antelier said he was nowhere to be found but I just double-checked, and he's with that extraplanar hussy in her plane. Holding her hand. Those odd birds they have are practically on top of each other. How is your mana supply, darling?"
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prodigal_miser
"I'm not insane, at least I don't think so, but if I am then it's possibly the second best thing to happen to me. The 'sudden' erratic behavior is actually not very sudden, I've just stopped caring about playing politics with you. Not to worry, I am entirely interested in preventing mass slaughter. It's one of my major goals, actually. But I've got some others that I'm pretty sure you don't have."
prodigal_miser
"Generally altruistic things. I'm not interested in just helping mages."
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"If you're going to prevent mass slaughter there need to be mages," says Yerena. "Who else would do it?"
"Witches," coughs Path in English.
"Witches," coughs Path in English.
prodigal_miser
"Subtle," says Vern, amused.
"Who indeed," says Adarin, smiling a little and being utterly unhelpful.
"Who indeed," says Adarin, smiling a little and being utterly unhelpful.
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"Why can't you understand that we are genuinely concerned and for good reason?" exclaims Yerena.
prodigal_miser
Adarin sighs. "Because I am so paranoid due to my childhood at your family's hands that I can only bring myself to trust two living people, one of which is my sister, the other is standing right next to me. I am not used to people being genuinely concerned, I'm used to people trying to use me because they want magic grandchildren. Case in point." He motions to them both. "Your first train of thought when you got here? My girlfriend is a number of nasty things and that I must be out of my mind, along with ignoring all of my arguments for why I do not want to go back. Yes, you have legitimate concerns, and I would address them, but you have done nothing to make me think that you are not trying to do exactly what you accused Isabella of. Manipulation, not the seduction."
dark_light
"Your girlfriend," sniffs the cat.
"What makes you so sure you can trust her?" demands Yerena.
"What makes you so sure you can trust her?" demands Yerena.
prodigal_miser
He starts ticking off his fingers. "The very first thing she did when I arrived and offered a favor in exchange for transportation? She asked me to do something to help people. She turned down the possibility of getting absurdly rich off of portals, or beauty, or any of the other number of things mages can do to ask for that. She has goals that are both good and make sense and she is very obviously sticking to them and putting a large personal investment in following them. Half of the plans I have are hers and I guarantee she helped with the rest. At every possible venture she's shown altruism and thoughtfulness, asks people about their preferences and then follows them.
"She's organized, and she's not - doing things because I like them. She plans new things herself, plots out new potential angles, and goes for goals she wants while stepping on as little toes as she can. When I offered her various problems that New Kystle has, she started proposing solutions, not 'Let's run away together where those problems will never bother you again.' In fact - how she handled our whole relationship in general was absolutely wonderful, she did not rush me. I took ages to kiss her and she didn't blame me once, didn't get snippy or demanding, or anything. When I was basically broken she never lost patience, or threw me aside, or tried to steer me towards a goal she wanted - she waited for me to get better and did everything she could to help.
"Before you get all insinuating, no it's not because she's pretty, or because she batted her eyelashes at me or some other nonsense. It is pretty blatantly obvious how badly those tactics worked on me in New Kystle. She's reasonable, she's systematic, and she's brilliant. I took a chance and trusted her, and she has yet to betray that trust."
He fixed the mage couple with a look. "So it's actually kind of annoying that you keep insinuating that she's something she is very obviously not."
"She's organized, and she's not - doing things because I like them. She plans new things herself, plots out new potential angles, and goes for goals she wants while stepping on as little toes as she can. When I offered her various problems that New Kystle has, she started proposing solutions, not 'Let's run away together where those problems will never bother you again.' In fact - how she handled our whole relationship in general was absolutely wonderful, she did not rush me. I took ages to kiss her and she didn't blame me once, didn't get snippy or demanding, or anything. When I was basically broken she never lost patience, or threw me aside, or tried to steer me towards a goal she wanted - she waited for me to get better and did everything she could to help.
"Before you get all insinuating, no it's not because she's pretty, or because she batted her eyelashes at me or some other nonsense. It is pretty blatantly obvious how badly those tactics worked on me in New Kystle. She's reasonable, she's systematic, and she's brilliant. I took a chance and trusted her, and she has yet to betray that trust."
He fixed the mage couple with a look. "So it's actually kind of annoying that you keep insinuating that she's something she is very obviously not."
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Isabella squirms happily while he rhapsodizes.
Yerena is less impressed. "She never steered you towards her goals, you just happen to be implementing every plan she proposes all by yourself. You have to see why that sounds strange!"
Yerena is less impressed. "She never steered you towards her goals, you just happen to be implementing every plan she proposes all by yourself. You have to see why that sounds strange!"
prodigal_miser
"... Not really? It's not a, 'I will do this plan because Isabella said so,' it's - 'This is a good plan that will do good things and I want the results, so I will help with it.' I don't really have outside peers to judge, but - my sister has pronounced us 'cute.' If you have ever spoken to her for more than five seconds you would understand how... Protective she can get. If there's manipulation going on I am so far out of my league that it's not even funny."
prodigal_miser
"Okay. Fair enough. I'm not being manipulated, but I don't really know of a way to prove that one, so I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and you can comment on the results after."
"You're being annoyingly cryptic and unhelpful," says Gervail. "If you would come clean and tell us your plan we might be inclined to help."
Adarin sighs. In English, he mutters, "Such an exercise in futility..."
"You're being annoyingly cryptic and unhelpful," says Gervail. "If you would come clean and tell us your plan we might be inclined to help."
Adarin sighs. In English, he mutters, "Such an exercise in futility..."
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"You don't think they'd actually be helpful, do you?" asks Isabella, also in English.
prodigal_miser
"They might be. But I'm not entirely sure it's worth the risk. If they don't know what we're doing, they can't do as much to hinder it. But if they learn about the colonization and freak out and gather up their cousins and such - then we have a problem on our hands."
"It's rude to speak in another language in front of people who don't understand it," says Gervail's penguin.
"It's rude to speak in another language in front of people who don't understand it," says Gervail's penguin.
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"It's rude to teleport into a private conversation," Path tells the penguin.
prodigal_miser
"He didn't exactly give us any other options to contact him, for a little while there I - er, Gervail - thought he was dead."
Adarin continues in English, "Furthermore, I'm not sure what they could do aside from speeding up the process. It's a useful thing to have, and if they weren't from New Kystle I would explain it to them in a heartbeat, but they are."
Adarin continues in English, "Furthermore, I'm not sure what they could do aside from speeding up the process. It's a useful thing to have, and if they weren't from New Kystle I would explain it to them in a heartbeat, but they are."
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"Your presence," says Path, "means that if we want to go on having a private conversation as we were a few minutes ago all we can do is speak English."
"So they're not that useful even if they wholeheartedly want to help," says Isabella in Saratese, glancing at the visitors with a look that says look how polite I am, aren't you pleased?, "and unlikely to do anything more than get in the way anyway."
"That's what it sounds like," agrees Path.
"And so the only likely advantage of being more talkative is that they start being annoying in a different way. Am I missing anything?"
"So they're not that useful even if they wholeheartedly want to help," says Isabella in Saratese, glancing at the visitors with a look that says look how polite I am, aren't you pleased?, "and unlikely to do anything more than get in the way anyway."
"That's what it sounds like," agrees Path.
"And so the only likely advantage of being more talkative is that they start being annoying in a different way. Am I missing anything?"
prodigal_miser
"Not particularly," says Adarin in Saratese. "Speeding up the process would be nice, but not worth the risk, I think. I don't know about you, but I can be patient."
"Patient about what?" demands Gervail.
"Patient about what?" demands Gervail.
dark_light
"I'm not particularly patient myself," says Isabella, "but I'm not low on things to fill my time with, so I don't see a particular need to accelerate the timetable or add difficult personnel."
prodigal_miser
"Fair enough. If we need to really speed things up we can always bother my sister, too."
"Wh- we weren't able to find her, either," exclaims Gervail.
His penguin pipes up, "Though we wouldn't have tried talking to her anyway."
"Wh- we weren't able to find her, either," exclaims Gervail.
His penguin pipes up, "Though we wouldn't have tried talking to her anyway."
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"I can imagine why you might skip it. Adarin's much nicer," comments Isabella.
prodigal_miser
Adarin laughs. "She can be very nice, I swear."
"I haven't seen it," says the older mage, unconvinced.
"I haven't seen it," says the older mage, unconvinced.
prodigal_miser
"I don't know how to feel about that, so I'm just going to default to pleased," deadpans her boyfriend. "No comment on your mom and my sister being friends."