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]

"Noooooot really. She can fly in Avalon, she's small enough, but adult critters who want to fly- or run-"

[coeur_de_lion]

"Super powered lion running!"

[horsefeathered]

Jenny snerks, and continues. "-usually go outside the city. There's some forests north of the city that are popular, I think."

[hatchedplan]

"And that's private enough, or are there also invisibility bracelets on top of the shapeshifting necklaces, or what?"

[horsefeathered]

"Soooo here's the thing. When people say 'magic' they mean pretty specifically this thing you can do that's unreliable and generally sorta unsafe and has mostly been lost. But species-specific magic is a lot more common? Like, I dunno, nixies can manipulate water, angels can banish demons, that sorta thing. So invisibility bracelets aren't really a thing. That's a 'lost magic' type thing."

[coeur_de_lion]

"Meanwhile, to actually answer the question: meh, private enough. We're also turning into animals with sharper senses and magical powers; even if humans show up, it's easy to get away."

[hatchedplan]

"Huh."

May isn't sure she wants to conflate privacy from humans with privacy from critters. Maybe if she figures out how to make her wings and nothing else appear, but she still has to know what to claim to be.

"Is there a word for the species-specific magic, then?"

[coeur_de_lion]

"Some of the species have probably named their own. But there's no general word for it that I've heard."

[hatchedplan]

"Huh. So I know Nemean lions are strong and invulnerable, do pegasi have anything?"

[horsefeathered]

"We can flyyyyy!" Jenny sighs happily. "Buuut other than that, nope."

[hatchedplan]

"What's the approximate percentage of critters who have crittery-magic versus critters who do not?"

[coeur_de_lion]

"One in four?" Alli hazards. "Merde, I don't know. Not a lot, whatever it is."

[horsefeathered]

"The dragons and sphinxes were the magical-est!" Jenny contributes. "Until they died in the war, I mean."

[hatchedplan]

"Is this like the critter equivalent of World War Two or something?"

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli has no faith in her ability to keep her face blank if she starts talking about this. Mouth shut it is.

[horsefeathered]

Jenny does not notice. This is pretty standard Alli behavior, in school.

"Sorta! Except that we don't know who started it. Or why. Or what either of them could do. Orrrrr anything at all really! Just that they hated each other and got into a huge fight and at the end, no more dragons, no more sphinxes."

[hatchedplan]

"Wow."

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli squirms uncomfortably and changes the subject. "So! Do you want to play sick for a few days...? I know it's France and all, but just in case?"

[hatchedplan]

"I seem to be doing okay so far. We'll see if I wake up and the bedsheets have had an unfortunate encounter with my claws or something? Is there a trick to this?"

[coeur_de_lion]

"If you go to sleep in human form the medallion'll keep it for you. It's surprises that tend to knock you out of it, usually?"

[horsefeathered]

"We could have a pillow fight!" Jenny suggests with a giggle. "Form practice and hilarity."

[coeur_de_lion]

"...what? No. How is that not obviously no?"

[horsefeathered]

"We don't have to move around! You can have a pillow fight standing in place! And then if you are startled by an unexpected pillow- practice."

[coeur_de_lion]

"Butbutbut clumsy is still- merde. Can we just not?"

[horsefeathered]

"Sorry!" Jenny says defensively. "I was just trying to help."