why is there a word for that

[alicornucopia]

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?"

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"It's been a hundred seventy years, it could have dimmed a little," says Aurin.

Finnah squints at the holo; she's never seen Piro before.

[thisvorlunatic]

A young General Piotr glowers at the camera.

"I don't even think I've seen a holo of him that young before," says Miles, "but the expression's sure familiar."

[alicornucopia]

"That is the 'have the correct opinions before I start telling you what they are' look," says Aurin. "Among other uses."

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles laughs. "Yeah. On the General it saw a lot of use as the 'I was a war hero before you were born, sit down and shut up' look. Similar use case, different context, maybe."

[alicornucopia]

"Ours isn't a war hero. I mean, maybe he is actually, for all I know he fought in the South Anaist Conflict or something, but it doesn't really come up and it would've been a long time ago, he mostly goes on about being a council member and super-old," says Aurin.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ours is a war hero," says Miles. "It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call him the war hero, of his generation at least. And there was plenty of war-heroing to go around in those days."

[middlingalong]

"Dragons usually don't go in for much nationalism," says Aurin. "Even if we stay in the same place a really long time. It never occurred to me to join the Corenta military, say, because I might decide at some point to pick up my favorite possessions and tuck 'em and fly to Aveha. Aveha's nice, especially in spring. Uncle Avar's got a government job, though - I don't remember your title -"

"I'm in the Imperial Service," says Ivan. "Sort of the done thing for Vor. Do you even have a job?"

"Not like a career. I pick up tour guide work interpreting for foreign tourists who think they're going to teach themselves more than three words of Vansalese and don't get translation spells, sometimes. One time a girl talked me into spending six weeks as a fairground ride only to discover that it was not technically legal for her to pay employees in sexual favors, so I guess that was a job. I help out Mother now and again, I'm pretty good at that but don't want to work for her, might go into some unrelated kind of event planning." At Ivan's headtilt: "She sets up these charity events? Where rich people who don't want to just sign writs of transfer all congregate to give each other excuses to sign writs and show off for each other about how big the writs are. Sometimes she does other things but it's mostly that."

[on_my_word]

"I do the odd bit of translation and solve problems everyone else has given up on," says Avar. "My official job title is National Applied Policy Authority. Translation isn't usually attached, it's just a matter of 'does anyone in the office speak this language? well, the dragon had better'."

[alicornucopia]

"Are we going around talking about our professional lives now?" asks Finnah. "I work at a candy shop."

[isthisart]

"I could reasonably be summarized as an engineer."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm a covert operative," Miles says brightly. "And a mercenary admiral. And a courier."

"I'm an exile," snorts Stalas.

"I'm a scoot racer," says Mial.

[unmarred]

"I'm unemployed," says Mark.

[greatcomposure]

"And I'm a research wizard," says Koridaar.

[isthisart]

"I've already collected textbooks on one apparently portable form of magic. Anything I can import from you?"

[greatcomposure]

"Elcenian wizardry doesn't work outside of Elcenia. But I'm interested in your apparently portable magic," she says.

[isthisart]

"It involves a lot of complicated drawing and I have no substantial evidence that it can do anything you can't, except be relocated to other universes, but Bar will supply textbooks on it. What about non-wizardry magic?"

[alicornucopia]

"Generally you have to be born with those," says Finnah. "You'd probably know if you had any of the kinds."

[greatcomposure]

"Purely for my own curiosity, I think I'd like a set of textbooks," says Koridaar.

[isthisart]

The bar quotes a price in aaberik.

"I don't mind buying them for you if that would be meaningfully useful," says Linya.

[greatcomposure]

"Meaningfully useful... hm, yes, I think so," says Koridaar, nodding. "Thank you."

[isthisart]

"You're welcome."

"I take it people who can be reasonably summarized as engineers make a lot of money?" says Aurin.

"Well," says Linya, "that depends on a variety of things."

[middlingalong]

"Linyabel invented the holo-pen, hardware and software, and they sell like ice cream in summertime on Zoave Twilight. She has a pet neuroscientist."

[isthisart]

"Dr. Cheung is not my pet."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Someone explain 'neuroscientist' in more detail?" says Mial.

[isthisart]

"Neuroscience is the rather medical study of brains. Dr. Cheung does groundwork in uploading, which would be the instantiation of a person's mind in software; it's at least sixty years away, even optimistically, but if it works it could mean universal immortality, and depending on some other factors possibly resurrection of adequately stored deceased individuals. I pay him a salary, reimburse him for research expenses, and provide software support, and I'll pay his assistant too when he finds one he likes, because that seems very cheap for universal immortality."