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

[isthisart]

Linya brings him a Bar-recommended tray.

[thisvorlunatic]

Nom nom yell yell.

[middlingalong]

"I don't," says Tiny Firebird Ivan, "really want to be a firebird." This after extensive silent leaning on his alt.

"Don't blame you," says Big Ivan. "Don't let your cousins give you any magic objects. Sounds like you get to be pretty much a normal human if you don't have one."

Tiny Firebird Ivan nods gravely.

[isthisart]

"How would you not want to fly?" asks Nika. "You're a bird. Birds can fly. ...Bar we need a firebirds book too. And a unicorns book."

There are no published books about unicorns.

"Huh. Why not?"

Perhaps they are particularly uncommon.

"Huh. Okay, but we do need a firebirds book."

She gets her firebirds book.

"...And the whole rest of that series? Please Linyabel?"

"You aren't going to break my budget with an entire libraryful of books, little one."

"Okay so all of the series of the history of whatever."

Nika receives her requested books. And returns to incredulity at her cousin. "Why don't you want to fly?"

"I don't know, I just, I want to be a human," says Tiny Firebird Ivan.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, you can be a human then," says Tiny Miles. "Even though birds are cool. Maybe we can get you a thing so that even if you get a magic thing on you by accident you won't turn into anything anyway. Bar, are there things like that?"

[alicornucopia]

None that are mentioned in published books. If someone has privately invented it I would have no way to know.

"She says no," reports Nika, "at least not that she knows of."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well," says Little Miles reasonably, "I'll invent one then."

Grownup Miles grins.

[isthisart]

"We will have to invent a lot of things," says Nika gravely.

"Bar," says Linya, "who publishes these textbooks, exactly? I mean, there's names, but."

I don't know anything beyond what's contained in the volumes themselves.

"So you might not have to invent that many things. You might be able to go to - Tau Ceti - and find these editors and learn what they know."

"Oh, that makes sense," agrees Nika.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't wanna," says Little Miles. "If it's all secret and stuff I'd rather be secret right back at 'em, and only tell Da and Mother and people."

"Good instincts," murmurs Grownup Miles.

[alicornucopia]

"Well, why is it secret?" wonders Nika.

No one has published a book with that information.

"Figures," mutters Nika.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I say we make Uncle Simon find out," says Little Miles. "That's sort of his job."

Grownup Miles giggles.

[alicornucopia]

"And then maybe I can go to magic school!" says Nika, bouncing. "And I will already know these books so I will be very good at magic school."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm gonna be a uuuunicorn," hums Little Miles.

"Congratulations," says Grownup Miles.

[alicornucopia]

"Can I ride on you? Unicorns are like horses," says Nika.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I might not be the right size unicorn," says Little Miles. "But if I am then yeah. Just not if you'd squash me. I want to not be a squashed unicorn."

"A noble aspiration," says Grownup Miles.

"I don't know what that means but shut up," says Little Miles.

[alicornucopia]

"I wouldn't squash you. You would have to be about as big as Gumdrop," says Nika. "And then I could dance you and we could win all the horse dancing contests."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That doesn't seem fair though," ponders Little Miles. "If I'm a person learning to horse dance then you're not really doing anything except not falling off of me. And they might not let unicorns in the contests."

"They probably wouldn't," says Grownup Miles.

[alicornucopia]

"Oh," says Nika, stymied by this quandary. "Well, we'll find lots more unicorns and have unicorn dancing contests then and win those!"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah!" says Little Miles.

[isthisart]

"Yeah. That's what we'll do."

And she goes back to magic textbooks.

"Are all of your grownups besides Bothari somewhere you can't go?" wonders Linya. "We're sending you home with so much stuff..."

"They're at a," handwave, "thing. So's Gregor. There's servants? I guess?"

"Bothari satisfies the 'is an adult' criterion by himself; what I was hoping was that we could send you to fetch one of the people you're going to be explaining this to..."

Nika shrugs. "You could write them letters, too."

"I think I will. Here, we'll switch seats and Isabella will tell you the words you haven't learned yet while I do that."

There is reshuffling.

[thisvorlunatic]

"What are you going to write? And to who?" wonders Grownup Miles.

[isthisart]

"A summary of the... payload. Notes on myself and Isabella for Nika's later curiosity and that of anyone she cares to show. Isabella might want to add a bit on expected developmental timeline in case that's useful."

[warpfairy]

"I can even produce parenting tips that stem from having had parents."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't feel the need to give my parents tips on parenting me," muses Grownup Miles.

"They do okay?" says Little Miles.

"Yeah."

"Well, they're Da and Mama, so that makes sense," says Little Miles.

"Yeah."

[isthisart]

"My guess is that they won't need most of it - they are sensible people - but it might be nice to have written down."