something she can use

[alicornucopia]

Ehail blinks, when she finds the bar instead of her room.

She goes in.

She looks out the window, at the exploding things.

"I don't think this is my planet," she observes to herself, tucking silver hair behind her ear.

~~~

with Elysse

with Lazarus

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Oh," says Ehail.

She sits down. "Does... that mean it would be hard to bring help from your world to the baby ones, or to bring the baby ones safely here - or, no, they can't come here, what if there were a dragon - but it means that I would be the test case for some reason?"

[nonbird]

"I'm not sure. A lot of this depends on Chris. She is the shady wish-mongerer that I know," he explains. "She might not want me hauling a lot of coins around, in which case I would have to bring one of you to my world to try it, and then it would make the most sense for it to be you because you're already here and - what about what if there were a dragon?"

[alicornucopia]

"We're contagious, in natural form. To dragons in natural form. And the babies can't shift into other forms," she waves at herself, "so they are all the time. They have to stay in the houses."

[nonbird]

"Oh. Well... well, hmm. In that case I might have to bring Chris to... or, no... I'm not sure. This is complicated. Definitely calling Chris is an early step," he says. "Um, the thing about you being the test case is that this place doesn't show up for just everyone, but once it's shown up for someone once it will keep doing that, but it won't always do it very promptly, and time moves weirdly between worlds. So I would rather ask you to wait by the door while I lean out and call Chris than complicate things by having you go find someone you think would be a better test case and convince them about the magic interdimensional bar and wait until you find a door again while your person is reachable, and then wait for both of you to find me, and then lean out the door and call Chris. It is better to have the person who will be the test case right next to me when I call Chris in case she wants to talk to them specifically. I guess if you have someone in mind that you know you can go get while still holding the door, then you could go get them. But not if they are a baby, I guess, because then you couldn't bring them into the bar?"

[alicornucopia]

"I couldn't. There might be a dragon here," says Ehail, shaking her head. "Probably not in natural form, unless the dragon was also a baby, but - I couldn't. Not unless I had Ludei bother the dragon council about making sure the place was clear first."

[nonbird]

"Okay. Then yes. I guess I will... go call Chris," he says.

[alicornucopia]

"...And... I'll wait," says Ehail.

She's still not smiling - she hasn't once - but she's got a sort of alertness in her eyes.

[nonbird]

"Yes," says Lazarus.

He gets up (abandoning his book) and goes to the door and opens it and leans out and says "Kolya can I have the phone please."

Nothing happens.

"For reasons," he adds.

A moment later, he is holding a phone.

[queensidecastle]

"Yes?"

[nonbird]

"I have a thing I want to use wishes for," he says. "It will probably take a lot. Milliways is involved. I can't imagine you don't know about Milliways, I will be very surprised if you don't know about Milliways."

[queensidecastle]

"I know about Milliways. Go on."

[nonbird]

"I have met someone here who I would describe as most of a dragon," he says, "and I would like her to be the rest of a dragon because being most of a dragon looks terribly uncomfortable and she seems really unhappy about it. She says there are a lot more most-of-dragons and we would like to fix them all. I don't know how big a wish it will take or even if a wish will do it at all, but I really want to try."

[queensidecastle]

"We don't just hand these things out, you know."

[nonbird]

"I am aware."

[queensidecastle]

"...All right. Will your 'most of a dragon' fit through the door? I'm... going to have to make a few calls, and then I might want her to talk to me. Or to somebody."

[nonbird]

"She is currently human-shaped and will fit through the door just fine," he says. "And probably not have very much of a problem using the phone."

[queensidecastle]

"All right. I'll call you back."

[nonbird]

"Kolya please hang up the phone," he says. "Chris is going to call me back. Also can I bring a person into our living room?"

[ignorable]

"Sure."

[nonbird]

"Thank you Kolya."

He un-leans and goes back to Ehail.

[alicornucopia]

Ehail has been waiting patiently.

[nonbird]

"I talked to Chris and she is going to talk to some other shady wish-mongerers and then call me back. Would you like to come into my world to wait to talk to her or whoever she gets on the phone? Does your world have phones, do I need to explain them? And you might be waiting for a long time if I let the door close, because the frequency with which I get doors behaves unpredictably, so I can stand there holding it open if you'd rather. And I have an invisible roommate who will probably be around being invisible."

[alicornucopia]

"How long is a long time?" asks Ehail. "We... don't have phones, but I can get a general idea from the word."

She makes no comment on the invisible roommate.

[nonbird]

"A long time could be a week or something. That's the longest I've gone without a door when I wanted one, and wanting one makes a difference."

[alicornucopia]

"I'll come in, then," says Ehail. "If you don't mind. I don't have to eat much if that's a factor."