a little young for that

[alicornucopia]

There is a red-eyed teenage boy - or so it would seem - positively interrogating the bar.

"Redreed wine?"

Aren't you a little young for that?

"I don't actually want any right now, but you know what it is?"

Of course.

"That... is interesting." He taps his fingers on the bar. "All right - I do, actually, want a chocolate iced planet."

And he gets a little square pastry, frosting on the top, and turns on his barstool to watch the comings and goings.

~~~

with Giles

with Lazarus

Comments

[jellyinthemix]

"Not as far as I know. The planet, yes, but not the world as a whole. How did yours get one?"

[alicornucopia]

"Draconic," says Kaylo. "It's a language, basically. It does that."

[jellyinthemix]

"Does being 'basically' a language imply that there is some way in which it isn't?"

[alicornucopia]

"It is a language, it just doesn't have all the - dependence on its speakers that other languages do. It will produce words without help. If you show me a selection of magical artifacts from your world that no dragon has ever seen before, I will have words for them, and I will be able to go home and talk about them to other dragons using those words, and those other dragons will have some idea of what I am referring to."

[jellyinthemix]

"That sounds... useful," he says thoughtfully.

[alicornucopia]

"So that's where 'Elcenia' came from. Dragons wanted to talk about our world as opposed to others, and the name was there," shrugs Kaylo. "Most other languages in the world have obvious etymological relationships to it for their own words for the world."

[jellyinthemix]

"Hmm. I wonder if one of our more well-travelled species of demon might have done something similar," he says.

[alicornucopia]

"Couldn't tell you. I'd need more to go on than having met you to see if Draconic has the information tucked away in it for your world too."

[jellyinthemix]

"I wouldn't expect you to. I can look up the likely sources myself if I become sufficiently curious."

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo nods. "I wonder if this place can translate Draconic," he says idly. "Does this sentence make sense to you?"

[jellyinthemix]

"Yes. Do other magical translators usually fail on that language?"

[alicornucopia]

"Like you didn't even cast anything," says Kaylo. "You can be under a sophisticated enough spell that you can listen to crystals in Alteisec and write a letter in Kandaph and speak Sengo and dance Flytwirl and figure out your taxes in Verian glyphs all at the same time and Draconic would be so much nonsense."

[jellyinthemix]

Giles shrugs. "Milliways."

[alicornucopia]

"Apparently!" says Kaylo. "Whatever, your language is interesting, I'll go on speaking it."

[jellyinthemix]

"Interesting how?"

[alicornucopia]

"Bigger vocabulary than most. Good aesthetics. I never spoke it before."

[jellyinthemix]

He grins. "I am unjustifiably proud."

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo laughs.

[nonbird]

A tall human approaches the bar.

He stops.

He peeeeeeeeers at Kaylo.

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo bites his iced planet.

He peers right back, with red red eyes.

"What?"

[nonbird]

"You," says the human, "are excessively magical."

[alicornucopia]

"Am not," snorts Kaylo. "Can't even cast any spells here."

[nonbird]

"Is the amount of magical that you are ordinary where you're from, then?"

[alicornucopia]

"Roughly. For the species, anyway. How are you seeing it? Can you cast spells here?"

[nonbird]

"I can't cast spells anywhere," he says. "My world's magic doesn't come in 'spell'. It comes in unique individual packages, and mine is seeing other magic. Is there a whole species of yous? With the shapes and the language and the assorted other things I'm not sure I understand yet?"