hell of a party

[middlingalong]

Ivan must be drunker than he thought he was. He could have sworn he knew his way around Vivienne's parents' house, since she wanted to introduce him last week and showed him the place, but maybe they have a... secret... upstairs... bar? where Vivienne's room is supposed to be? And most certainly was last time he checked? He's never going to find the sweater she sent him up looking for here, anyway. Why is there a secret upstairs bar in Vivienne's parents' house?

Comments

[alicornucopia]

The bar declines to produce an identification of Bothari on the basis of a noncommittal grunt.

[washed_in_blood]

"You have to say she can tell or she won't," says Little Miles.

Bothari frowns slightly. "You can say. Ma'am."

[alicornucopia]

He's a bugbear, napkins the bar, possibly grudging.

"I don't even know what that is," says Nika.

[washed_in_blood]

"Me either," says Little Miles. He looks up to verify that Bothari has looked, and asks, "Do you know?"

Bothari shakes his head.

"What is it, then?" asks Little Miles.

[alicornucopia]

The bar produces a book with a photograph on the cover, entitled A History of Bugbears (by M. E. Knight, published by the Drakontos Press Escobar).

[washed_in_blood]

"And it's the same thing," says Little Miles, "with the magic transform thingy that you can't give us and all? Is everybody from our world stuff?"

Bothari looks at the picture.

[alicornucopia]

I haven't looked at everyone from your world, says Bar reasonably. It seems that most people think there are also some humans.

The picture shows a bear. With scary eyes and ridiculously big claws.

"I want a dragons book," Nika says.

Bar gives her one. There are six different dragons photographed together on this cover, all different sizes and shapes and colors. This book is about three times as thick as the bugbears one and by the same publisher, though not the same author.

[washed_in_blood]

"Can you tell us how to tell if somebody's stuff when they don't know for themselves?" asks Little Miles next.

Bothari is still looking at the picture.

[alicornucopia]

I can't teach you to do it how I do it. I just do it by being a magic bar, says the bar. An advanced version of the magic objects that would remove your transformative illusions will detransform arbitrary species, though ordinary versions are species-specific.

"The bugbear in the picture looks soft," opines Nika. "And big, I bet you could ride one like a horse."

[washed_in_blood]

"If you turned into one of those I'd go around on your shoulders all the time," says Little Miles, grinning up at Bothari.

Bothari smiles very slightly back.

"Are there books on how to make the magic thingies?" persists Little Miles.

[alicornucopia]

Some.

"Well, give us the some, then," says Nika. "I am not learning to fly right now and that is not okay."

They're very advanced, but you could start here, replies Bar with handwriting that looks like it's trying to sigh, and there appears a textbook: Runecasting 1: Principles and Practices (Riddle Press, Tau Ceti).

[washed_in_blood]

"I want," says Little Miles, "every single book I'd need, to learn how to make my own magic thing to be a unicorn. And then I'm gonna learn how and then I'm gonna do it. If I go home to where nobody even knows stuff is then I might never learn how."

(Bothari has that face he gets when Miles is being very Miles.)

[isthisart]

The stack of magic books multiplies alarmingly.

"You have a project, little one," Linyabel murmurs to Nika.

"I do! I have a project and am a dragon!" crows Nika.

It occurs to Linyabel to ask: "Does one need to be a... transformatively illusionable creature... to learn this kind of magic?"

The Bar is slow to answer, but says, No.

"Have these books been published in a nice electronic format?"

Most of them.

"I would like my own set."

[warpfairy]

"Me too, though I'll take the plastic kind."

Sets appear. Bar is pretty crowded.

[washed_in_blood]

"I want something to carry all my books in, please," says Little Miles. "Bothari, can you carry the books and me?"

"Yes, m'lord."

"Good," says Little Miles. (He has caught on that Bothari is not going to put him down in the magic bar.)

[alicornucopia]

"Are you not going to share? Do I have to get my own?" Nika asks her brother.

The intimidating stack vanishes and then reappears neatly arranged in a box.

[washed_in_blood]

"I'll share with you," says Little Miles. "But my books are my books. I'm not letting any grownups take them away or anything." He ponders, then adds, "We can have them copied and then everybody can have one."

"Are we taking the books back now, m'lord?"

"Not yet. I still have to beat Grownup Me at Strat-O again," says Little Miles.

[thisvorlunatic]

"And here I thought you'd forgotten all about me."

[isthisart]

"I'm buying everybody a set of these, aren't I?"

"I want my own ones," Nika says. "But, I don't care if they're flimsies or not."

"Bar, if I could get a converter to put my electronic forms on a pen charger for her..."

Linya receives the requested object. She starts converting the electronic books. "Well, this is a day of uncharacteristic expenditure, but I'm pretty sure I should put it all in the 'investment' column."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I haven't demanded a set," her husband points out. "...Mostly because I'm assuming you'll share yours. You'll share yours, right?"

[isthisart]

"Yes. We can be - runecasters, together."

[thisvorlunatic]

He beams at her.

Little Miles makes an exaggeratedly grossed-out face.

[warpfairy]

"The upstairs contingent will have a lot to catch up with," says Isabella, picking up her introductory hard copy.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Very true," says Grownup Miles. "Miles-Five, are you ever going to come back here? You have a game of Strat-O to lose."

"I'm going, I'm going," says Little Miles. "Bring my books."

[washed_in_blood]

Bothari brings Little Miles and the books over to the relevant table.