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Adarin's magic has some advantages over witchcraft, but it is imperfect. Still, over time, mana recovers, and in this time Metis's hospitality does not run out.
They watch Harry Potter, Adarin is introduced to Wikipedia, he makes the second thingamajig. Isabella interrogates her alethiometer.
It's kind of cryptic about whether she has to fear being a "crazy witch". But she's tentatively optimistic and still brainstorming new ways to format the question. (She complains about the alethiometer being bad at numbers and at "yes" and "no".)
It can, however, identify landmarks by referring to whatever they're named after. It's not so hard to interpret on the subject of where she may find a place to claim. She moves into it, Adarin in tow, Metis retained as a friendly advisor but apprenticeship terminated. The place has plumbing and a generator already; she gets satellite Internet for an entire half-day of spellcasting and collects a hand-me-down laptop from a mortal friend of her mother's. She sets up arrangements for building a nice big wall along the edge of a clearing on her appropriated property. It's a very busy couple of weeks.
Eventually she tries asking the alethiometer a fifteenth way whether she's prone to crazy witchitude. Whether she'd ever hurt someone she loved if they rejected her, or even threaten it.
The alethiometer says: love violence counter-to querent nature.
She's starting to get the hang of interpreting it, even if most of the practice has involved getting the addresses (via intersection and cardinal direction because it can't give her anything so useful as house number or latitude) and this is - this is pretty damn good.
This is good enough.
Of course, that's not all the answer she needs, is it?
Path goes looking for Vernaia.
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dark_light
prodigal_miser
"No idea. But I've met one, and I like her, so at least I'll get some visits."
dark_light
"I would totally visit you sometimes even if you were all hermity."
prodigal_miser
He snickers. "Thank you. That makes me feel better about being a hermit, if it ever occurs."
dark_light
"Well, I can't say I want to actually encourage it under the circumstances that are, but I would do my best to mitigate its loneliness."
prodigal_miser
"That's very kind of you," he says, with a smile. He removes the fluffy coat, and plops onto a couch with several fluffy pillows to replace it.
"Anything you'd like to do before I announce you and introduce you to people?"
"Anything you'd like to do before I announce you and introduce you to people?"
dark_light
"I'd like to stash the cloud-pine and my bag wherever you're putting me, but after that I'm all set to mingle."
prodigal_miser
"... Right, I am being rude. Whoops, uh -" he gets back up, then clears his throat and says in an overly-formal tone, "Would you like a tour, m'lady?"
He's teasing, but he does actually mean to give her a tour.
He's teasing, but he does actually mean to give her a tour.
dark_light
"I would indeed like a tour," she says, extending her hand so that she may be led about.
prodigal_miser
He takes it, with a grin.
They go on a tour of the house! It has all necessary rooms that a house requires, such as a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a study that has a woefully small amount of books (Adarin explains that their priority wasn't books), two bathrooms (that run by magic), and three bedrooms. Overall, it's a nice house. It's got a soothing aesthetic, and is pretty practical-minded. Rooms aren't just there to be rooms, the rooms do stuff. Isabella's free to choose between the two spare bedrooms as she prefers. One has a nicer view, but the other is slightly bigger.
Hand-holding is also a thing that occurs all throughout the tour, if Isabella's up for it.
They go on a tour of the house! It has all necessary rooms that a house requires, such as a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a study that has a woefully small amount of books (Adarin explains that their priority wasn't books), two bathrooms (that run by magic), and three bedrooms. Overall, it's a nice house. It's got a soothing aesthetic, and is pretty practical-minded. Rooms aren't just there to be rooms, the rooms do stuff. Isabella's free to choose between the two spare bedrooms as she prefers. One has a nicer view, but the other is slightly bigger.
Hand-holding is also a thing that occurs all throughout the tour, if Isabella's up for it.
dark_light
Isabella is so up for handholding.
She picks the room with the nicer view, and stashes her objects in it.
She sets her cloud-pine to floating in the middle of the room. If she puts it down, anyone can pick it up. If it's floating, she's the only person who can budge it.
Just in case.
She picks the room with the nicer view, and stashes her objects in it.
She sets her cloud-pine to floating in the middle of the room. If she puts it down, anyone can pick it up. If it's floating, she's the only person who can budge it.
Just in case.
prodigal_miser
Adarin's pretty happy with the hand-holding situation, as well. There's a faint smile on his face throughout all of the tour. Adarin is not one to be insulted at paranoia. Actually, he kind of supports it.
"Do you want me to fix your door so it's like my bedroom's? No one who isn't you would be able to open it without blowing it up or disentangling the spell, which not everybody can do," he offers, when she sets her cloudpine to float for safety reasons. "I have only a bit of mana to work with, but it's really not an expensive spell to do."
"Do you want me to fix your door so it's like my bedroom's? No one who isn't you would be able to open it without blowing it up or disentangling the spell, which not everybody can do," he offers, when she sets her cloudpine to float for safety reasons. "I have only a bit of mana to work with, but it's really not an expensive spell to do."
dark_light
"That would be great. I'm officially 'not a clan embarrassment' with a dagger, but I do have to be awake to attain even that status..."
prodigal_miser
"And your continued safety and well-being is important to me," he says easily.
He takes a second to think about it, then pokes the door and mutters something, and the spell goes.
"Done. Technically if you want you can lock someone in there, now, I didn't have the power to make it only one way."
He takes a second to think about it, then pokes the door and mutters something, and the spell goes.
"Done. Technically if you want you can lock someone in there, now, I didn't have the power to make it only one way."
dark_light
"They could get out the window, I imagine, and I don't plan on doing this unless someone sneaks in invisibly, in which case it's their own fault."
prodigal_miser
He snickers. "Yeah. Let me know if there's anything else that I can do to put you at ease. I will not be insulted at paranoia."
prodigal_miser
Adarin nods. "Then... I suppose necessary mingling is exactly what it sounds like and we'll have to do that eventually."
He doesn't look pleased about this.
He doesn't look pleased about this.
dark_light
"Am I going to hate everyone I meet here who isn't you, Adarin? Are they that bad?"
prodigal_miser
"I mean, some of them are entirely inoffensive, but I don't particularly like any of them. The trouble is that in inviting any of them, even the inoffensive ones, it means that if I want to not make a bigger target of myself I need to invite even the people I actually dislike."
dark_light
"Ah. No carefully curated just-friends dinner parties. Do you want me to stand next to you the entire time and engage the terrible people who I haven't yet had the chance to become thoroughly sick of, for you?"
prodigal_miser
Adarin smiles, affectionately. "No thanks, but thank you. I've put up with it this long. I just put up a..." he uses a loanword from English, "Poker face and suffer through it."
prodigal_miser
"Mostly by paying other people to go tell them. I know some people that are happy to, so, not a problem."
dark_light
"Does the whole thing take very long - are we talking 'sit up here for a while brushing up on the list of troublemakers' or 'loiter for three minutes in the front room'?"
prodigal_miser
"First one. Might have been better to get people to start the process sooner, but - I don't like backing you into a corner and saying, 'This is when the thing will be because I have scheduled it without your input, ha.' Also, I procrastinated a little."
He also maybe wanted her all to himself, for a little while. He missed her.
He also maybe wanted her all to himself, for a little while. He missed her.