severe discomfort

[alicornucopia]

Jensal has a lot of work to do. Her house is going to collapse; nobody had better be inside when it does. She is briskly bundling adult miracles into groups who have at least one decent job between them, she is writing to agencies that handle adoption for the ultimate disposition of kids who don't get picked up because she's reasonably sure that they will not all get picked up, and when parents do drop by to collect their little ones she is signing papers for every set of them with slightly gritted teeth. Lots to do. Her hand is cramping from paperwork and she doesn't care.

Comments

[adapt_again]

He shrugs acknowledgment of this very valid point.

[alicornucopia]

Iftha leaves him be.

[thisvorlunatic]

Two days later, Libby suggests to Mial that the miracle girl with no name is probably well-adjusted enough to visit his house and learn how to play board games. She warns Mial that the miracle girl with no name is very very weird - Mial, having seen her briefly when he was talking to Libby about his new job as a miracle worker, agrees wholeheartedly. But he also says he doesn't mind teaching her to play board games regardless of how weird she is.

And that is how he ends up miracle-teleporting a nameless jet girl into his living room.

[thisbrokenworld]

She's finally picked a humanoid form - human, with shiny black hair. She sits down on the floor and hugs her knees and peers around at everything; she still prefers to sit on floors rather than stand or use furniture, because she still has a bit of a problem with ending sequences of bodily movements and it alarms people less if she goes completely limp and falls over when she is already on the floor.

[alicornucopia]

Finnah sits on Mial's head. She's been doing a fair amount of that. Not talkatively, but rather companionably. Perhaps she expects him to need to banish an unwanted parent again.

[thisbrokenworld]

"You're pretty!" announces the nameless jet girl, beaming. "Your feathers are pretty! You're a cardinal! Are all cardinals pretty?"

[alicornucopia]

"Real female ones are kind of drab," says Finnah. "Male cardinals are pretty."

[thisbrokenworld]

"Oh. Okay. Do you have a name?" she asks next. "I don't!"

[alicornucopia]

"I'm Finnah. The miracle-workers can fix it if you want a name, you know."

[thisbrokenworld]

"I know! Libby says I should probably wait to decide if I want a name until I know more about what kind of person I turn out to be when I'm not locked in a horrible little box, and I think that makes a lot of sense!" she says, very cheerfully. "Right now I feel like I don't want a name at all because it seems weird and I don't understand it, but maybe later I'll feel differently!"

[alicornucopia]

Finnah wingshrugs and nests in Mial's hair.

[thisbrokenworld]

"Mial is your hair nice to sit in?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't know, never having sat in it."

[thisbrokenworld]

The nameless jet girl laughs and laughs and laughs.

[alicornucopia]

Finnah giggles slightly.

[thisbrokenworld]

"Okay now show me games," the jet girl says when she is mostly done laughing.

[thisvorlunatic]

Mial gets out a board game. He sets it up and explains the rules.

[thisbrokenworld]

"Why do you have to follow the rules?" wonders the jet girl.

[thisvorlunatic]

"The rules of a game are sort of what makes it itself instead of some other thing," Mial explains. "So if you aren't following the rules you are either not playing the game at all, or you're doing a thing called cheating which is not only not playing the game properly but also tends to annoy other players."

(He has been given tips on what sorts of explanations the jet girl seems to grasp best.)

[alicornucopia]

Finnah flutters off of Mial's head and shifts; she may as well play if she's going to hang out.

[thisbrokenworld]

"You're still pretty but now you are a human!" declares the jet girl.

[alicornucopia]

"Thanks," says Finnah dryly.

[thisbrokenworld]

The jet girl giggles.

She plays the game. She's not very good at it at first, but she learns fast.

[thisvorlunatic]

Particularly when Mial gives her helpful strategy tips.

[alicornucopia]

Finnah plays with a certain indifference to winning that seems reasonable when engaging Mial, a novice, or both.