coffee chats

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli is the one who arranges the weekly coffee date in Avalon. She's got plenty of friends at school, she's not lonely, but she's never really had critter friends before. She hadn't even realized how much she enjoys having people to hang out in midform with until she has them. She decides she likes it, and that she would like this to continue, thanks very much. She tries the spontaneous approach for a while, more out of laziness than anything, but Jenny has school and work and siblings, May has her girlfriend and has turned into a bottomless pit of magic practice, and Emma can't leave Avalon. So Alli finally just throws up her hands and proclaims that everyone's meeting in the Avalon coffee shop at the same time every week, okay, okay? Cool.

It works better than she expects, honestly. She's not sure they would have become friends naturally- it's probably telling that they weren't, before- but they've got enough shared history under their belt by this point that it hardly matters. Everyone has the occasional conflict, but they're rare and they're mostly good about telling the group beforehand. (Okay, so everyone except Alli is great about it, and Alli has a memory like a sieve.) But Alli had last minute detention last week, so she's feeling guilty enough to arrive early. Almost early. A few minutes early, anyway.

She's amused but not particularly surprised to see Emma and Jenny already there when she arrives. Emma's usually early, since she lives in Avalon and all, but she and Jenny look like they've been there for a while; they've got half empty cups in front of them and Jenny's most of the way through a cookie. Alli grins and joins them. "Even when I'm early, I'm late. Frimeuses, vous deux. May here yet?"

Comments

[led_to_water]

"They hadn't even checked?"

[hatchedplan]

"I don't think they have a way to check, they just had some crap about how only God can make souls and since Isabella's mom made her clearly..."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny puts her head in her arms on the table and moans in horror. "I'm going to kill Father O'Brien, I can't believe he would do this!"

[led_to_water]

"I'm not Catholic or anything, and I hate demons as much as the next critter, but you'd think her age would have been a hint..."

[hatchedplan]

"I have no theological opinions on the subject, just moral ones."

[coeur_de_lion]

"Theological opinions aren't all that necessary. It's not like demons and angels stop existing for me just cause I'm Jewish." Alli scowls. "Doesn't mean Impending Bonfires One and Two didn't massively fuck up, though."

[hatchedplan]

"I told Isabella I'd do whatever she wanted with them and she did not ask me to set them on fire. Calm down."

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli silently thinks that this is getting off awfully lightly for kidnapping but hey, it's May's call. "Okay, sorry, sorry. How is she doing?"

[hatchedplan]

"She's fine. I stayed up with her for a while and her mom made her dumplings and she received many hugs and I teleported home late last night."

[led_to_water]

"That's sweet," Emma says, smiling a little at 'dumplings'. "I'm glad she's got you guys."

[coeur_de_lion]

"Okay, good," Alli says, then cocks her head. "Wait, teleported? Teleported teleported?"

[hatchedplan]

"Don't get too excited, it's not a vetted spell and nobody else had better try it, it's probably trying to kill me real hard every time I cast it, I'm just magic like that."

[led_to_water]

"Killing you really hard? Are you all right? Magic like what?"

[hatchedplan]

"Yeah, I was gonna figure out some good way to go public but I'm really tired and the story doesn't hold together without unless I construct an elaborate timeline in which I had the opportunity to fly to and from California quick enough to interfere with a kidnapping since I can't mass-produce a safe teleport... 'm a dragon."

[led_to_water]

"What? What? But dragons are extinct!"

[coeur_de_lion]

"Eeeeeenh," Alli makes a buzzer sound. "Population one. That we know of, I guess."

[hatchedplan]

"Two, my parents are both alive."

[coeur_de_lion]

"Right, sorry. Plus at least one without a medallion."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny is still stewing in a mix of guilt and priest-directed rage, but manages a confirming nod.

[led_to_water]

"You guys knew?"

[hatchedplan]

"The only reason to keep it a secret was the concern that there might be somebody somewhere who would start a war over it, but sphinxes actually were extinct and the 'were' is because of how Isabella's mom conjured her up. And I don't think she's going to declare war on me. So I've been gradually rolling out the tidbit and we're going to go properly public at some point."

[led_to_water]

"Isabella's a-" Words fail Emma entirely and she just gapes.

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli pokes Emma in the rump a couple times without much of a reaction, save for a tail swish that looks like a reflex. "Did you break her? Man, May, I think you broke her."

[hatchedplan]

"Isabella's mom doesn't like it when things are extinct. So she tried to make a baby sphinx and a dragon to bring up, but the spell only worked on extinct things so Isabella's an only child."

[led_to_water]

Emma's tail smacks Alli, this time rather more intentionally. Emma herself just stares at May in bemusement. "She, um. Doesn't like extinct things? That's, uh. That's a reason, I guess."