milliways_bar | (no subject)

The cat is watching her back, with wide golden eyes.

Ulfin hasn't noticed just yet.

It's cute.

Nothing's stronger than the power of cute, if you're a teenage girl. Except maybe Batman, but you can't really put cute and Batman in the same sentence without brainmeats protesting loudly. So ...

"Hi, kitty." She wiggles her ingers at it.

It's a little bigger than in the icon, by now, but still not half-grown, and wildcats aren't that much bigger than domestic cats anyway.

He yowls at her.

"Hello there." More finger-wiggling. COME HERE, CAT. SHE WANTS TO SCRITCH YOU.

The cat is in the process of being tamed, and is just domesticated enough to make a show of waiting for permission. And Ulfin finally notices.

"Hello."

Ooh. Person, too. Steph grins, a little sheepishly. "Hi! I was trying to make your cat come talk to me, 'cos it's more interesting than my book, but I don't think he's interested."

"He's not all the way tame yet", Ulfin says apologetically. "Still a wild thing, aren't you, Carney?"

Carney purrs smugly.

"He's cute," Steph says. "Carney's a nice name. - I'm Steph, too."

"My lady Morgan chose it", he says with a smile. "I'm Ulfin."

"Nice to meet you, Ulfin." Steph grins. "And Carney. Even if he doesn't agree. I'm totally trying to study, like, King Arthur and stuff, and it's a really boring book, so any distraction's good."

Ulfin blinks.

"...you're studying King Arthur?"

"Well, sort of." She shows him the book. ~~Now the mun has to decide which book it is, doesn't she...~~ "It's all about, like, whose father was whose and who owned which castle and stuff, there aren't any knights or anything in it yet. But I'm totally getting there!"

"...why?"

~~As long as it's not Mary Stewart, the mun is golden.~~

"Because I've served him since he was a boy, and his father before him", Ulfin says, looking faintly shellshocked.

Cue Steph going :o!!

"...really? That's totally cool!"

~~It can be Malory. How's Malory sound? Or Zimmer Bradley, maybe. Or an anonymous Really Boring Book.~~

~~There's no shortage of them. And I think Elaine inna bar is from Malory - or else read it and disapproved of her depiction.~~

"...I suppose so?" he ventures, looking more confused than startled now.

"What's it like? History, I mean?"

To Steph, there's Her Time, and then there's History.

...yeah, the humanities weren't a strong point at school. Not that she finished school, but y'know.

Blink.

"...could you narrow that down a little?"

"...probably, yeah," Steph admits, with a grin. "Um. So, this book's all about, like, who lives where and who hates who. Is it like that really?"

Mmm, clarity. Sparkles, dunnit?

"I haven't read the book", Ulfin points out. "So I don't know. Probably?"

Steph giggles. "Cool. I guess. So what do you do when you're not at the Bar, then? Like, are you a - lord, or a knight or something?"

"Oh, no." He smiles. "Just a servant. The king's chamberlain."

"Cool! - what does a chamberlain actually do, then?"

"Whatever I'm told. Mostly I'm his personal servant, but I carry messages he won't trust to the courier, and anything else he needs me to do."

"That's pretty awesome. Must be a lot of responsibility."

Of course, Steph's idea of 'carrying messages' translates a lot more to 'drops a letter in the postbox' or possibly 'emails' than what Ulfin is thinking of, so she's understating a little.

Ulfin nods.

"I try to live up to his trust."