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

[unmarred]

"...Not immediately."

[thisbrokenworld]

"Solvei's mother's stalker ex?"

[unmarred]

Mark hisses softly under his breath. "I don't know that we have one, but I can extrapolate. Perhaps it would be relevant for me to mention at this juncture that I am a trained assassin."

[isthisart]

Linya glances at Bella. "Is Bella allowed to help explain or do you still require her silence?"

[thisbrokenworld]

"No, go ahead, the cat's out of the bag now anyway."

[onceandforall]

"Ghyslaine has magic powers, which we have somewhat incomplete information about but which might thwart an assassin, especially since assassinating her organic body will only inconvenience her."

[unmarred]

"What must I assassinate instead?"

[thisbrokenworld]

"Her soul gem."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...I'm still a little unclear on the exact nature of this horrible disaster," says Miles. "But, um, I don't want to pry if that would be intrusively personal."

[onceandforall]

"Ghys is Solvei's legal guardian and I doubt that you need all that many details on the ways this is unpleasant."

[thisbrokenworld]

"Mark has apparently already figured out that there's torture involved," says not-Solvei.

[unmarred]

"My creator had a somewhat differently-targeted obsession with Aral Vorkosigan, Miles's father," says Mark. "Hence the fact that I am a trained assassin."

[thisbrokenworld]

"I need a lot of fake Solveis because I wouldn't do that to the real one."

[unmarred]

"Yeah."

[middlingalong]

"Aurin is a firebreathing dragon," mentions Ivan.

"I'm not usefully a firebreathing dragon," says Aurin. "Mark has a better shot of figuring out how to assassinate a gem than I do firebreathing or no."

[thisbrokenworld]

[unmarred]

"Aren't they just," says Mark.

[abeance]

"Oh, did the thing happen?"

[unmarred]

"Solvei's sister/substrate is inexplicably charmed by the inexplicatly charming nature of Ivans, yes."

[middlingalong]

Of Ivans, Ivan and Aurin are best positioned to high-five, so they do.

[thisbrokenworld]

Giggle.

"But, in all seriousness: how do we assassinate a gem."

[abeance]

"Hit it with a rock?"

[thisbrokenworld]

"Hard to get close enough without her noticing and killing you. Not sure how big a rock it would take to actually damage the thing."

[onceandforall]

"If any of your portable magic can just casually remove the gem from her person that's most of the job done already. She has a range limit on how close she has to be to control her body with it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...And I'll bet this range limit does not extend between worlds," says Mial. "I could summon it to Elcenia. Might be a little tricky to set up, though, and I wouldn't have much of an idea what to do with it afterward."