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Finnah's just arrived at work to open the store for the morning shift; she has her apron on but hasn't put her hair up yet. She lets in the customer who always takes half an angle to determine that he wants four buttercreams, again, and then nips into the back to tend to her hair and check the overnight progress of the rock candy.
This isn't the back.
But that -
No, he's too tall to be Mial, if this is a Mial prank it's a stupidly elaborate one.
"Okay, I give up," she says, "what the hell?"
nonbird
"...That is very weird," says the miracle worker. "Um. This is a magical problem, correct? Draconic is a magical language... can I teleport to where you are and see you say all that again? I can see magic, it is useful for this sort of thing."
"What exactly d'you need me to say?" asks Finnah. (She starts arranging chunks of brittle on the sample plate and offers him one.)
nonbird
"'Siad' and 'siaddaki' and 'shren' and 'shrennaki', so I can see what Draconic really thinks of them," he says. "Ooh. Candy. Thank you."
nonbird
He goes from intrigued to mildly nervous to unhappy to downright alarmed over the course of those four words.
"That's terrible," he says. "That's completely—um. Here. I'll just." He does nothing obvious, but then he says: "'Shrennaki', try that," and it is definitely a word in definitely a language that bears a strong resemblance to Draconic but expresses no intrinsic opinions about shrens.
"That's terrible," he says. "That's completely—um. Here. I'll just." He does nothing obvious, but then he says: "'Shrennaki', try that," and it is definitely a word in definitely a language that bears a strong resemblance to Draconic but expresses no intrinsic opinions about shrens.
nonbird
"I made a magical language with a lot of properties in common with Draconic, including its whole vocabulary to start with, excluding Draconic's terrible opinions, and made myself its first attached speaker, and 'shrennaki' just sort of happened automatically. If you would like to be attached to it too, you can do that, it is compatible with your magic."
"Mial - shrennaki," says Finnah, "he just, he picked up Draconic and made a duplicate one that isn't such an asshole, you can just kind of - have it!"
unmarred
"The crisis is very thoroughly over," says Mark, in case anyone was still in doubt about that.
Finnah giggles. "And he said you can just have it attached to you now you know it exists, I did it, it's nicer."
thisvorlunatic
"No kidding. Wow." He wipes his face. On Mark's sleeve. "Um. Sorry for having a complete breakdown, everybody."
middlingalong
Finnah pats him.
"Am I allowed to talk yet?" asks Ivan plaintively.
"Yes, fine, whatever," says Aurin.
"Am I allowed to talk yet?" asks Ivan plaintively.
"Yes, fine, whatever," says Aurin.
thisvorlunatic
Mial sighs and hugs Finnah again, and then hugs Mark, and then hugs his mom.
"Well, that was exhausting."
"Well, that was exhausting."
isthisart
"It looked it. It's fixed to everyone's satisfaction?"
"Yep," says Finnah. "Back to work I go." She ruffles Mial's hair so some of it stands up and traipses out.
"Yep," says Finnah. "Back to work I go." She ruffles Mial's hair so some of it stands up and traipses out.
