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Alli's school is not a terribly interesting school. It is, as far as Alli is concerned, a perfectly boring and average school in all possible respects. But some alumnus went and made themselves a bunch of money, and apparently they think it's a good idea to spend some of this money on "improving the cultural exposure of today's youth". (Alli has never met the alumnus in question, much less heard them speak, but she persists in picturing this spoken with a haughty British accent.) What this means for Alli is that she and a number of other 'deserving students' are being shipped over to France for free for a week. Alli's not quite sure why she counts as deserving- because her mom's single, maybe?- but she's hardly complaining. It's a free trip to France, after all.
In her usual style, Alli packs an hour before she has to leave and ultimately makes it out the door only ten minutes late after forgetting at least three vitally important items (her eyeliner!). But she makes it through Pearson security with plenty of time... well, more like barely enough time. But the important thing is, she's safely ensconced in her seat when they take off.
Once she's gotten her bag stowed and her legs rearranged in a doomed attempt at comfort and generally considers herself suitably settled, she turns to her seatmate. "Is your brain doing an Eeeeee France! thing too?"
lyonhearted
maybeso
"I didn't know magic or critters or anything existed until a few weeks ago. Where do you get a magic teacher?"
Miss Viv shrugs. "I've never tried to find one myself, dear, I'm afraid I won't be much help. Some Avalons have locals who know magic, I suppose you could ask one such, but we've no one to speak of in Toronto."
The books are all quite introductory, Miss Viv having not much to go on. Most are catalogs of critters, but there's also a couple magic books that at least attempt to cover the fundamentals. The critter books run a range of options, from a book claiming to contain "all of Canada's native critters" to a large but obviously old book focusing on the "critters of the Orient" and ending in a pile of books about "traditional Western critters." It's a reasonable variety, considering.
Most do have pictures! Only one with photographs, it's mostly examples of artwork about or based on critter "myths", but plenty of pictures.
None are sorted by color; a couple are arranged in some fashion making sense only to their authors, one's sorted in something passing for 'chronologically', and a few are loosely typed by family (feline, canine, etc). The rest are just alphabetical- or, in one case, translated unthinking from another language, and ordered by that alphabet instead.
None are sorted by color; a couple are arranged in some fashion making sense only to their authors, one's sorted in something passing for 'chronologically', and a few are loosely typed by family (feline, canine, etc). The rest are just alphabetical- or, in one case, translated unthinking from another language, and ordered by that alphabet instead.
maybeso
Well, she knows she's not going to pass for feline or canine. She looks and looks and looks. Come on, something has to be blue, right?
There are a reasonable number of things that are blue! Many are clearly unhelpful, however; she is, for instance, obviously not a nixie like Miss Viv. The closest she is likely to find is a wyvern, in no small part on the strength of them being cousins to dragons.
maybeso
She pauses on the wyverns. She doesn't want to say yes that's me in case these are extinct too, but they're a very good fit. She looks at Alli for guidance.
lyonhearted
Alli has been distracted paging through a book, clearly one of a series with its neighbors, which appears to be a mystery thriller- or possibly a trashy romance- or perhaps both? In any case, she puts the book down when she sees May looking at her and wanders over. "See anything familiar?"
lyonhearted
Alli takes a look. It's- very close to a dragon. This makes her at least slightly nervous, in a what if someone makes the jump from wyvern to dragon sort of way, but she can't very well say that. And they're not extinct, at least, they exist and are known to have had medallions. She can't for the life of her think of one she's met, but she hasn't met a naga either, and she knows for sure those exist.
And this way May can admit to her wings. Bonus points for that.
"Looks pretty close," she says cautiously. "You part English or Welsh somewhere?"
And this way May can admit to her wings. Bonus points for that.
"Looks pretty close," she says cautiously. "You part English or Welsh somewhere?"
maybeso
"Not that I know of, but I didn't know I was part reptile, either. I don't suppose there's a Japanese variant?"
lyonhearted
Alli glances towards the front of the shop. Miss Viv has retreated, presumably to keep her trailing puddles from accumulating too close to her bookshelves. Talking- reasonably safe if she's quiet, but she shouldn't push it, she decides. "I've seen Japanese... critters like that... but I don't think they have wings. Claim it farther back, maybe?"
maybeso
"I have no idea how far back it'd be. Since I didn't know I was a thing. But I could be an eighth or a sixteenth white on Dad's side and wouldn't necessarily know."
lyonhearted
"Maybe I'm missing something about Japanese names here, but. Aren't you pretty definitely part white somewhere, Mlle. Swan?"
maybeso
"I don't know where my last name came from, but there's no strong reason to expect that it was from a white person instead of from a transliteration, translation, or deliberate name change somewhere along the line."
lyonhearted
"Oh, right. Those are things. Well, you're still named Mabel Swan. You can probably get away with it."
lyonhearted
"Meh. Go for it. Not a lot of alternatives." She eyes the picture in the book. "Just remember the two legs thing, yeah?"
maybeso
"Yeah. I guess I'm slightly more bipedal than I let on to Emma. Well, the joke still works."
This last was said a tad too loudly; Miss Viv wanders back in their direction. "Are you finding everything all right, dears?"