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Aurin holds his mother's hand as she leads him from the street to his aunt and uncle's house. He's been here only a couple of times, and can't remember most of them distinctly; they're sort of awkwardly related, his dead father's half-brother and the wife thereof. But now they have a baby parunia, and that means there is a dragon related to Aurin who is not too far from his age, only thirty-one years younger. This is apparently the sort of relation that it will be particularly enriching for Aurin to meet. They can do this now instead of waiting a month, because parunias don't die when they're babies; this one is safe, unlike the miscellaneous cousins on his mother's side he's never met because they are all in too much danger to get attached to (and have all succumbed to that danger). So here they are. Even though it was a very long flight and he couldn't ride his mother for takeoff and landing when she had to be a heron, only for the middle part.
Alys knocks on the door.
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Finnah nods solemnly.
"It makes him boring."
"It makes him boring."
"He isn't supposed to be boring."
"Fix it."
Finnah nods and goes about her business.
greatcomposure
Mial lumps around the house.
But a few days later, of his own accord, he birds and flies in a little circle. Then he goes and finds his mom and asks her to find him something to do, anything, as long as it's something he hasn't tried yet. She thinks about this request for an angle or two and then comes back to him with a book on paper folding, which he digs into with rapidly accelerating glee. By the end of the week, he's bouncing around like nothing ever happened, and when he finishes learning all the different figures in the book he asks his mom for more.
But a few days later, of his own accord, he birds and flies in a little circle. Then he goes and finds his mom and asks her to find him something to do, anything, as long as it's something he hasn't tried yet. She thinks about this request for an angle or two and then comes back to him with a book on paper folding, which he digs into with rapidly accelerating glee. By the end of the week, he's bouncing around like nothing ever happened, and when he finishes learning all the different figures in the book he asks his mom for more.
Finnah is very relieved that he is being Mial instead of boring.
Mial is kind of relieved too, but when he's not being a lump of Mial it's hard for him to remember what it was like.
The paper-folding hobby, unlike many of the other activities he has tried during his childhood, sticks. It provides an outlet for some of his irrepressible energy. Not all his energy, but some.
The paper-folding hobby, unlike many of the other activities he has tried during his childhood, sticks. It provides an outlet for some of his irrepressible energy. Not all his energy, but some.
Finnah, meanwhile, is busy doing flag dancing and playing an elaborate game with collectible tokens and trying to make fudge that doesn't burn or otherwise fail at being fudge.
Mial will happily test her fudge efforts, and offer critique on request. Or sometimes without request, if a batch turns out particularly badly.
Finnah doesn't take criticism very well.
He recalibrates pretty quickly to be increasingly diplomatic about it, but will still make faces at sufficiently bad fudge.
Well, then, he no longer gets tastes. So there.
Well, that just won't stand.
He thinks over the problem for a while. If he stopped making faces then she might let him try her fudge again. But it is very hard not to make faces at really bad fudge, and sometimes it's not obviously burned so he doesn't know not to try it until it is too late.
Mial starts making fudge. He has less fudge-making experience than Finnah, so it doesn't turn out nearly as well. Which is exactly the point. He needs to practice not making faces when he tries a spectacular candy failure. (Finnah is welcome to have as much as she likes, and he will warn her away from the really awful ones.)
He thinks over the problem for a while. If he stopped making faces then she might let him try her fudge again. But it is very hard not to make faces at really bad fudge, and sometimes it's not obviously burned so he doesn't know not to try it until it is too late.
Mial starts making fudge. He has less fudge-making experience than Finnah, so it doesn't turn out nearly as well. Which is exactly the point. He needs to practice not making faces when he tries a spectacular candy failure. (Finnah is welcome to have as much as she likes, and he will warn her away from the really awful ones.)
While he is working on this, Finnah perfects her basic fudge recipe, gives all her friends except Mial packages of it for Lufelsis, and starts working on branching out into different flavors.
Pretty soon, Mial can make decent fudge and is acceptably confident in his ability to conceal reactions to bad candy.
He goes to Finnah and apologizes for making faces at her candy and promises not to do it again. And gives her all his latest batch of decent fudge except the little bit he tried for quality control purposes.
He goes to Finnah and apologizes for making faces at her candy and promises not to do it again. And gives her all his latest batch of decent fudge except the little bit he tried for quality control purposes.
Finnah tastes his fudge and tells him that he didn't use enough vanilla and gives him a slice of her attempt at peppermint.
Mial sincerely and enthusiastically compliments the peppermint.
Good. Finnah is smug.
When Finnah has learned to make a lot of different flavors of fudge, she moves on to penly.
When Finnah has learned to make a lot of different flavors of fudge, she moves on to penly.
Mial, on the other hand, totally abandons candy-making. He has gotten what he wanted out of it, and he really doesn't want to start making it a competition between him and Finnah. Which tends to happen when he gets really interested in things. So he's just gonna quit while he's ahead.
Flying his mom's scoot and learning ever more intricate paper-folding figures are mostly enough to keep him occupied for the next little while anyway. Mostly.
Flying his mom's scoot and learning ever more intricate paper-folding figures are mostly enough to keep him occupied for the next little while anyway. Mostly.
Finnah keeps up with the candy-making thing. She is very diligent about it.
Mial tries all of her candy and compliments it when it is good and makes diplomatic suggestions when it is not good and does not make any faces at it. And he flies the scoot and folds paper and climbs many things.
It is about this time that the city of Paraasilan - not particularly near his home, but quite near his old school - is developing a reputation as a big theater town. For example, there is a production of Saanen Afternoon, which is a musical starring a gaggle of children who originate from a variety of different backgrounds and family situations but come together to produce a newspaper. There are songs about various backstory traits and the newspaper project. The kid with the most screentime is a brunette Eastern elf in her late twenties, playing an Avehali immigrant; she gets all of one song and a third of two others and can sing and act really well.
After the show is over the actors may be visited and asked for autographs 'round back.