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

[marrinikari]

"Well, that's hardly an excuse," Miss Viv retorts. "Books are good for the soul, you know." Her eyes light on May. "A new face! Hello there. I'm Miss Viv, it's lovely to meet you."

[hatchedplan]

"Hello, Miss Viv. I'm May."

[marrinikari]

"Welcome, welcome. Can I help you find anything? Forgive me for supposing you're the one shopping, but this one-" she looks at Alli in amused exasperation- "is probably not the reason you're here."

[coeur_de_lion]

"I admit nothing!"

[hatchedplan]

"I'm principally interested in two things. One, what-all kinds of critters there are - Alli's never seen one of me before - I might demonstrate, but, chair. I'm hoping to find a match in a book. Two, I want to learn magic."

[marrinikari]

Miss Viv's eyes brighten. "Not starting small, are we?" she says, sounding pleased. "Well now, what to start with... can you narrow it down at all? North American critters? Asian critters? Canine, feline, equine, bovine, avian...? Oh, and magic, so broad. Household spells? Defensive spells? We don't have much in the way of offensive spells," she warns.

[hatchedplan]

"I'm blue, I have claws, I don't seem to have fur or feathers," says May. She's not sure she wants to mention the wings; she'd like to go around with wings in the Avalon and learn to fly like that, but she doesn't want to constrain her search space too much. "I'm Asian, but I don't know how widespread any given critter population may have gotten, so I don't know how to direct you. General magical theory and introductory stuff would be great to start with, once I get more of an idea of what it can do I'll have more information on where I want to focus."

[marrinikari]

"There's not a lot in the way of introductory magic books," Miss Viv says doubtfully. "Most people come to it with a foundation, to brush up on their skills- well. I'll see what I can do. I suppose I'll have to grab some of the less detailed critter books for you as it is. 'Blue with claws', my word, that's not much to go on." She eyes Alli. "And anything for you, dear?" she asks dryly.

[coeur_de_lion]

"Sorry Miss Viv," Alli says innocently. "I have just too much reading to do already."

[marrinikari]

"Alli! Lying is beneath you," Miss Viv tells her sternly, but unbends enough to add, "though I suppose you do have your schoolwork, don't you."

To May, she says, "Hang on, dear, I'll be back in a trice."

It is not exactly a trice, but she is nevertheless reasonably quick about returning with a pile of books for May to inspect. She offers them to May with a, "Have a look and let me know if you see anything you like, won't you?"

[hatchedplan]

"Of course." May peers through them. "Where do people get their magical foundations?"

[marrinikari]

"Well... from their families or teachers, I would assume. Not a lot of people looking to learn magic without someone already there to learn from."

[hatchedplan]

"I didn't know magic or critters or anything existed until a few weeks ago. Where do you get a magic teacher?"

[marrinikari]

Miss Viv shrugs. "I've never tried to find one myself, dear, I'm afraid I won't be much help. Some Avalons have locals who know magic, I suppose you could ask one such, but we've no one to speak of in Toronto."

[hatchedplan]

"Okay, thanks anyway." Books peer peer.

[marrinikari]

The books are all quite introductory, Miss Viv having not much to go on. Most are catalogs of critters, but there's also a couple magic books that at least attempt to cover the fundamentals. The critter books run a range of options, from a book claiming to contain "all of Canada's native critters" to a large but obviously old book focusing on the "critters of the Orient" and ending in a pile of books about "traditional Western critters." It's a reasonable variety, considering.

[hatchedplan]

Are there pictures? Or indices sorted by color?

[marrinikari]

Most do have pictures! Only one with photographs, it's mostly examples of artwork about or based on critter "myths", but plenty of pictures.

None are sorted by color; a couple are arranged in some fashion making sense only to their authors, one's sorted in something passing for 'chronologically', and a few are loosely typed by family (feline, canine, etc). The rest are just alphabetical- or, in one case, translated unthinking from another language, and ordered by that alphabet instead.

[hatchedplan]

Well, she knows she's not going to pass for feline or canine. She looks and looks and looks. Come on, something has to be blue, right?

[marrinikari]

There are a reasonable number of things that are blue! Many are clearly unhelpful, however; she is, for instance, obviously not a nixie like Miss Viv. The closest she is likely to find is a wyvern, in no small part on the strength of them being cousins to dragons.

[hatchedplan]

She pauses on the wyverns. She doesn't want to say yes that's me in case these are extinct too, but they're a very good fit. She looks at Alli for guidance.

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli has been distracted paging through a book, clearly one of a series with its neighbors, which appears to be a mystery thriller- or possibly a trashy romance- or perhaps both? In any case, she puts the book down when she sees May looking at her and wanders over. "See anything familiar?"

[hatchedplan]

"You got a better look than I did, help me out?"

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli takes a look. It's- very close to a dragon. This makes her at least slightly nervous, in a what if someone makes the jump from wyvern to dragon sort of way, but she can't very well say that. And they're not extinct, at least, they exist and are known to have had medallions. She can't for the life of her think of one she's met, but she hasn't met a naga either, and she knows for sure those exist.

And this way May can admit to her wings. Bonus points for that.

"Looks pretty close," she says cautiously. "You part English or Welsh somewhere?"

[hatchedplan]

"Not that I know of, but I didn't know I was part reptile, either. I don't suppose there's a Japanese variant?"