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

[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?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah," says Kaylo. "I'm a dragon, we're a thing. There's like thirty kinds in six magically distinct groups and three power levels, though."

[nonbird]

"Gosh," he says. "I want to hear all about them."

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo laughs. "Well," he says, "I'd be recognized as one at home too, albeit not usually from that far off. The eyes," he explains. "Dead giveaway. We keep our colors when we assume shapes. Where it goes depends on what we're being. If I was a girl and I turned into a human it'd be my hair."

[nonbird]

"Hmm," he says, peering at Kaylo's eyes. "Curious. Does the colour have to do with grouping? It looks like it might. It looks - subcategorical."

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah. Garnets like me are in the red group. Our thing is fire. White gets flying, black gets senses, green gets empathy, blue gets shapeshifting, purple gets swimming."

[nonbird]

"Subcategorical," he says, nodding. "Hmm. It's an awfully delicate system, though. Well, not fragile, but - I would be uneasy if I was walking around with a container labeled 'below here disaster' near the top and 'below here death' a little farther down, even if it was full, tightly sealed, and not prone to leaking."

[alicornucopia]

"...Beg pardon?"

[nonbird]

"Oh. Did you not know that? You should probably know that," he says. "You have an amount of the kind of magic you have, and it doesn't want to be much less than the amount you have of it or bad things will start happening."

[alicornucopia]

"...Ah, you know, I think I can guess, and would rather not talk about those bad things, they are something dragons do not like to think about."

[nonbird]

"Oh," says Lazarus. "...Um, okay."

[alicornucopia]

"I mean, I can talk about dragons all you like," says Kaylo. "Just not those bad things."

[nonbird]

"Yes, but now I've forgotten all my questions about dragons that are not specifically about the thing. - Well, I guess it's not specifically about the thing if I ask if dragons ever leak enough magic to drop dead on the spot, but it's also kind of morbid and depressing."

[alicornucopia]

"It is morbid and depressing, and no, we don't typically do that, although 'dropping dead on the spot' is how old age tends to get us and I suppose it could coincide with leaking magic."

[nonbird]

"Well, that's good, I guess. I hope that continues not happening except to very old people and possibly stops happening to them somehow. Oh, another question, is there a thing that happens when a dragon has more magic than you do? It seems sort of like there might be but I have no idea what it would look like if there was."

[alicornucopia]

"Yes, I told you there are three power levels. I'm garden-variety. There's also unusuals and uniques. They get more of the per-group powers. The currently only living unique green-group is married to the headmaster of my school," Kaylo adds conversationally.

[nonbird]

"Does this person go to Milliways, and can I meet them?"

[alicornucopia]

"I am not aware of anyone from my world ever having been here before," remarks Kaylo. "It's quite new to me. It's cool, though!"

[nonbird]

"Yes!" says Lazarus. "It contains a lot of magic. Which is why I was surprised that you still managed to stand out."

[alicornucopia]

"Excessively, even," laughs Kaylo.

[nonbird]

"Yes. Yes, that is the word that I used."

[alicornucopia]

"Despite the fact that you promptly established that it'd be very bad if I were one bit less magic," he snorts.

[nonbird]

"Well. Yes," he says. "There's also the other thing you have that isn't in the same container, though. Is that also completely ordinary?"