(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

The summer sun, even magic-made, pseudo-Scottish, summer sun, feels wonderful. It's one of those hot, still days that are quintessentially summer - insects buzzing, not a breath of a breeze, the heat shimmering off the surface of the lake in the blazing light of the sun. There's no way Sunshine could've resisted it's call for long.

When the afternoon's cinnamon rolls are done, cooling on their racks in the kitchen, Sunshine comes out into the sunlight where it burns down on the lakeshore, and settles into the task of soaking it all in. The bandage covering the bite on her upper left arm still itches - but that's to be expected.

As is the general soreness of that arm and shoulder; but Rae will happily put up with it as being preferable to having had her arm torn off. The deep bruises that show from under the bandage are finally starting to fade from deep purple towards sicky bruise-yellow on their way to looking like normal human skin again, but the bite-scrape-whatever hidden by the bandage itself will take longer.

Until then, sunlight, and lots of it.

So there is a baker sunbathing on one of the large, flat boulders near the lake's edge, wearing a yellow tank-top and plum-purple jean shorts (her shoes are nearby, at least). Utterly botherable.

Comments

[makesthings]

Sam finally has a bite and is wrestling with his reel and adding a few curses along the way,

"Come on, you fish, you're mine now."

Hopefully he's not loud enough to disturb Rae, if he is, he'll apologize just there's fishing to be done.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine isn't one of those who apparently need absolute silence to sunbathe. She's not there for a tan.

"Careful it's not just the squid playing with you," she says after a minute or two of watching him wrestle with the reel.

[makesthings]

"No, I can see it, right there,"

His line strains and he says a quick spell that glows around the line before the fish finally comes.

"There, told you I'd get it."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Ah," she says. "I'll admit I don't know much about fishing."

The one time she'd gone, she had only gone to spend time with Mel, not because she had any urge to impale invertebrates on metal hooks or use them to catch fellow oxygen-breathers and pull them up to suffocate in a foreign medium before being cut up, cooked and eaten.

"You're a magic-handler?"

[makesthings]

Quickly he unhooks the fish and puts it in his creel with the other he caught,

"Charter Mage, yes, Charter's the magic of my world. I grew up fishing with my father, sister and sometimes mother, it was something we could do away from every one else."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I've only been once, with my boyfriend, though I spent most of the time just lying out in the sun and reading," she smiles slightly. "Are the rest of your family Charter Mages, too?"

[makesthings]

"Yes, though we all have different strengths. I'm a Wallmaker, which means I'm good at building things. My father's an incredible offensive Mage, my mother's Abhorsen, she fights the Dead and my sister is Heir and not as strong a mage. We can all do some things like healing and some offensive and defensive but how well we do them depends more on us,"

He hopes that makes sense, his family tends to get odd looks in Milliways and he hasn't mentioned the royalty part yet.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae nods. Makes total sense to her. "Every magic-handler has their own particular strengths, in my world, too. There's a saying, if one has gone the entirely wrong way about getting something done, or if someone is completely unsuited for what they're having to do, that 'you might as well ask a wardsmith for a glamour.'"

"Your mother fights the Dead?"

[makesthings]

"What's a wardsmith do? Yes, she does as does my aunt. I was going to for a while but I'm not suited for it,"

Though he can do some parts of it, its not what he's meant to do.

[sunbaked_baker]

"One shouldn't have to do what one's not suited for, but someone one has to," says the squeamish, vegetarian, pacifist vampire-hunter.

"Wardsmiths make wards. Protection spells, either for one's person or for one's home - most wardcrafters specialize down to that level, too. There are different ranks depending on the wardsmith's experience, power, and skill with their craft."

[makesthings]

"Oh, that's something we're taught fairly early as Charter Mages especially how to use a Diamond of Protection to keep yourself safe during a spell. What sort of magic do you do?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Wards are usually set into physical objects, though, so they're more durable and last longer. Nobody goes without the standard home wards, if they can help it."

Rae is just lucky to have a Wardskeeper, the highest rank of wardsmith, as a landlady.

"I..." she has to think how to answer. "I'm best at transmuting. Changing things into other things. But, I also fight... vampires."

Milliways may be a good respite from having to keep her secrets locked up tight, but it's unlikely she's going to get used to saying it blatantly, any time soon.

[makesthings]

"Yes, that makes sense. That's kind of what I build as Wallmaker, we have a lot of protections that are deeply connected to the Charter such as the Charter Stones and the Wall as well as spelled swords. Transmuting sounds difficult, but I guess it depends how much is being changed."

When she mentions what she fights he swallows and nods, "Are there are a lot of them to fight?"

[pickledtribute]

And there's someone swimming.

Someone in ridiculously purple swim trunks, since that's all he could wrangle out of the Bar, and he knows better than to do that much damage on purpose to the clothing supplied by the stylists.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine approves of clothing in colors that can be considered ridiculous - it'd be mighty hypocritical of her, otherwise.

"Hey you," she calls when he passes within hailing distance. It's good to see him again - hopefully he's in a better place than he was last time they met.

[pickledtribute]

He pauses, treading water, and after a moment the look of caution eases off a bit, and he waves.

[sunbaked_baker]

"How's the water?" Rae asks. It looks nice, but she's never been one for swimming when there was a sun to bask in.

[pickledtribute]

"Surprisingly un-dry." He snarks back at her, lazily floating. He's not inclined to go to shore - shore is connected to the door, which leads back to a train, which holds two coffins.

He's good here.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Must be all that wetter-than-normal rain we've been getting," she nods understandingly. "Hope the fish" and the squid "can stand being that wet."

[pickledtribute]

"It's tough all over, Red." He replies resignedly, lolling without any shame whatsoever.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Maybe the sun'll help dry things out a bit. Get it back to normal," she says, lifting her face to the light. The bruises across her arm and shoulder may look pretty nasty, not to mention the bite the bandage covers, but she can already feel the good that the sun is doing for them.

"If the fish need to be bailed out further than that, we can organize a bake sale on their behalf." The first ever TWiH-sponsored bakesale!

[pickledtribute]

He grins wickedly, a smile that's gotten him into far more trouble than it is worth.

"Hell, Red, make it a seafood fry and I'm your man."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Points for creativity, but I doubt cooking them is the best way to solve the fishes' watery woes," she says, sticking out her tongue at him.

[pickledtribute]

"No, but it'll make me happy." There is nothing, after all, wrong with a good fish fry. Mags taught him that.

[sunbaked_baker]

"You know how?" Vegetarian bakers don't get much experience using a deep fryer. Sorry, Haymitch.