to paris with love

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli's school is not a terribly interesting school. It is, as far as Alli is concerned, a perfectly boring and average school in all possible respects. But some alumnus went and made themselves a bunch of money, and apparently they think it's a good idea to spend some of this money on "improving the cultural exposure of today's youth". (Alli has never met the alumnus in question, much less heard them speak, but she persists in picturing this spoken with a haughty British accent.) What this means for Alli is that she and a number of other 'deserving students' are being shipped over to France for free for a week. Alli's not quite sure why she counts as deserving- because her mom's single, maybe?- but she's hardly complaining. It's a free trip to France, after all.

In her usual style, Alli packs an hour before she has to leave and ultimately makes it out the door only ten minutes late after forgetting at least three vitally important items (her eyeliner!). But she makes it through Pearson security with plenty of time... well, more like barely enough time. But the important thing is, she's safely ensconced in her seat when they take off.

Once she's gotten her bag stowed and her legs rearranged in a doomed attempt at comfort and generally considers herself suitably settled, she turns to her seatmate. "Is your brain doing an Eeeeee France! thing too?"

Comments

[horsefeathered]

"I'm pretty normal but I'm a vegetarian," Jenny contributes.

[hatchedplan]

"So like - the mass conversion is handled by magic or something."

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli eyes their surroundings. Nobody's close to them at the moment, but other students are starting to gather around the bus (sandwiches!); given their proximity to same, someone will be close enough to hear them eventually. "Pretty much," she agrees. "But... questions back at the hotel, maybe?"

[hatchedplan]

"Yeah, sure."

Nom.

[horsefeathered]

And shortly they are bussed back to the hotel. Jenny rejoins her friends at the front of the bus for the trip, but most people are either eating or sleeping (or, in at least one case, apparently falling asleep while eating). The hotel has arranged their bags neatly in a back room for them to sort through upon their arrival; in short order Jenny has located her bag and gone in search of Alli and May again.

"Roomies!" she chirps. "Come on, come on, I have a key-" she holds it up proudly. "Naaail painting?"

[hatchedplan]

"Nail painting is compatible with getting me up to speed, yes? Uh, I can't tiptoe through bags without breaking something, can one of you find my suitcase, it's blue and the luggage tag looks like a giant red flower because Ren is so tasteful with birthday presents?"

[horsefeathered]

"Alli? You're stronger than me..."

Jenny has remarkably effective puppy eyes, for someone who is both arguably equine and patently overplaying the face.

[coeur_de_lion]

"Lazy bum," Alli snorts, but she retrieves the bag and hoists it along with hers. Roomwards it is.

Once they arrive she plops the bags down with a huff. "You get the way back, wimp," she tells Jenny.

[hatchedplan]

"I can - it can go on my chair," says May.

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli winks at her. She likes using her Nemean strength; she's just giving Jenny grief for the sake of it.

[hatchedplan]

"As you like." May does put the bag on her chair to haul it into the room. "So what color are my nails going to be?" And when the door is closed behind her: "And will this carry over to my, apparently, claws?"

[horsefeathered]

Jenny grins and holds out a hand. It folds into a hoof with rather faded nail polish flowers decorating it.

[hatchedplan]

May laughs. "Okay, let's see what colors you've got and hear your version of the summary."

[horsefeathered]

"Oh, you don't actually have to. I need fancy new flowers, but they are totally optional! It is just my new favorite euphemism for talking about critters."

She plops herself on one of the beds and starts digging through her backpack in search of her toiletries kit. "So. Critters! There are lots of us! Really anything you think is a 'mythical creature' is probably a critter somewhere, except dragons and unicorns cause they both went extinct in the war. People like us-" she waves around the room. "-have medallions. That means we can look like humans. We can also do midform! Whiiiiich is anything and everything combining your natural form and your human form."

As she mentions 'midform', her clothes rearrange themselves to make space for the enormous grey feathered wings that just sprouted from her back. She giggles. "Like so." The wings retreat. "There's critters that don't have medallions, they cannot look like humans, it sucks, they are stuck in hiding. 'Hiding' in civilized places means in a critter town. You know, like Little Italy or Little Portugal? There are Little Critters. Which are totally called Avalons and not Little Critters, but you get the idea."

She frowns. "Errrrr, trying to think what else. It runs in families? Don't change in public? I probably missed things."

She places a small pile of nail polish colors on the floor. "Sorry, I didn't have space for more, your color selections are as follows. Or no polish, no polish is still totally an option."

[hatchedplan]

"Eh, I like that blue, there, I'll let you do my nails if you want. You probably don't want me to return the favor, I'd drop the brush. How many Avalons are there? How many kinds of critters? In what way does it run in families? How do I get the hang of midforms?"

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli snorts. "You get the hang of human, first. Till then, 'midform' is just 'merde I dropped out of human again'."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny beams, and drags the desk chair over next to May's chair so she can start on her nails. "There's lots of Avalons! Most big cities have them. Smaller places just collect in critter-only towns. Like, I think there's some islands in Greece full of harpies? That sorta thing." May hand: retrieved. "I don't know how many kinds there are. Looooots? I mean, how many mythical creatures are there, anyway? Different kinds in different places, too. Asia has a totally different set than we do." May nails: slowly becoming blue. "The family thing's easy. Critters have critter babies. Medallion critter kids (or grandkids or whatever) all look human, though, up until the kid picks up a medallion."

[hatchedplan]

"So at least one of my parents is also a secret critter."

[horsefeathered]

"They could not know! It could be your great great great great grandpa married a human and didn't tell so no one's gotten a medallion before you," Jenny hastens to reassure her. "But... yeah. At least one's a critter. And one is definitely- whatever you are? Did you say?"

[hatchedplan]

"I found about this literally today and there were no mirrors and I'm more of a Shakespeare and occasionally Victor Hugo person than I am a - a Tolkien person," says May, which isn't quite I don't know but also isn't a lie. "I will want books. Lots of them."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny looks at Alli questioningly.

[coeur_de_lion]

"Don't look at me. I've never seen one of her before," Alli says with perfect honesty.

[hatchedplan]

"I'm exotic. I do know I'm blue," says May. "I don't want to change in here, though, I will not fit in my chair and I'd certainly knock everything over, possibly including the wall, flailing around."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny giggles. "Oooooh yes, I know the feeling. You saw how big just my wings are! These rooms are not built for pegasi. You can show me later if you want, maybe I'll know what you are."

[coeur_de_lion]

"She has to practice staying in human form," Alli points out reasonably.