milliways_bar | (no subject)

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When Fry comes in, he looks a little less tidy than he usually does. His shirt collar is pulled up, there is a little hole in his school jumper sleeve, and he generally looks like he might have been through a hedge backwards.

(He won though)

He slips into a nearby booth and pulls out his pack of cards, which were loose in his pocket. He puts most of them back in the packet and starts trying to get the crease out of one that has been bent in half.

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"Having some trouble there, little man?"

There's a slim elf-woman with white hair and a very large dog watching him from a nearby chair.

Or rather, she noticed his struggle with the cards -- insofar as it is a struggle.

Is it wise for children to be left alone here? (Well, wise or safe, or both?)

Fry glances up, but doesn't make eye contact. Nothing personal there.

"Dad says that solid things are made of atoms and they have bonds." he says. "So when they get bent, why won't they go flat again?"

He glances at the dog, cautiously.

Liranan pants, in a gleeful and friendly way.

His tail is also wagging.

"People aren't the only things that have memory, I think. Do you have something heavy to put on top of the cards? It might help, even if it won't get rid of the creases."

"But then why doesn't it remember being flat?" Fry asks.

He shakes his head.

"It remembers being bent more. That was more recent."

Ysalwen's smile is a little crooked.

"I'm just guessing, of course. I don't know what these atoms are."

"You can't see them because they're too small." Fry says.

He glances briefly at her face, catching the smile.

"My name is Alexander Jefry Sandhu but I like to be called Fry."

"Smaller than dust particles? How does one tell they're there, then?"

She's genuinely curious.

"Hello, Fry. I'm Ysalwen Surana. I like to be called Ysalwen, but Ysa will also do, in a pinch."

Fry gets a notebook out of his pocket.

"Please will you write your name in my book so you're less of a stranger?"

"There's no real reason to object. Do you want Liranan's name and pawprint, as well?"

It's entirely possible her name is not legible to eyes from Earth, depending on how well Bar's written translation field is working.

"Do you have parents somewhere about, then? I think it would be nice, myself."

"My dad comes here but he's not here right now." Fry says.

He shakes his head. "Only if he's also a person that talks." he says.

"He's not good at speaking, no. But he'll come find you if he's here and you call for help. Liranan is good like that."

The mabari barks twice, cheerfully.

He is a very good dog. And guard dog.

"I'm glad you've got someone to come here with you, at least some of the time. I don't think I'd like to always be by myself, even if everything is interesting. Did you know there are fish swimming in the fire?"

Shrug. "I needed a break from school."

He nods again. "Yes, it always looks like that. Are you new?"

"It's not something I'd see at home, really, unless someone was casting an active illusion. And those are definitely real fish. I checked."

Real flaming fish, but whatever.

"What do you learn at school? Magic?"

That's the schooling Ysalwen is most familiar with. There -- really isn't much call for any other kind, back home. Maybe in the Chantry, but --

No.

"No, we do maths and reading and science and goggery and history and RE and PE and some other stuff."

Fry scowls. "And it's snowing outside so we can't go out to play, and Tommy laughed at my card game."

"Well, that's awful. Except the reading and the mathematics."

And possibly the science and history, but Fry's world's history might be awful, and she doesn't want to ask.

"Why did Tommy laugh? Does he not know how to play the game?"

Edited 2015-01-20 23:36 (UTC)

"He said it was for babies and that it was really moist that I got that and a maths computer game for Christmas."

Fry gives up on straightening his card out.

"So I told him nobody would buy him a maths game for Christmas because he's too thick and that I bet he couldn't even read most the words on these cards."

Ysalwen keeps her face straight by dint of some little effort.

Liranan merely wags his tail enthusiastically.

"I have a feeling that didn't make him any less mean. Did it at least stop him laughing?"

"Yes, and then he got me in a headlock, but I do karate so I won."

"I know what a headlock is, but, if I can ask -- what's this karate?"

She pronounces this last word carefully, as she might try to correctly pronounce Orlesian, or Tevene.

"Martial arts." Fry says. "Most of the kids are there to learn how to hit people, but I know how to hit people so I go to karate to learn how to deal with people without hitting."

"Like diplomacy? I've had to learn a lot of that, just lately. Do you like it? Karate and all the rest of it, that is."

Liranan creeps a little closer, and Ysalwen drops her hand to scratch between his ears.

"No, like wriggling and pushing."

Fry shrugs. "It's useful. I get in trouble less."

She laughs a little, quietly.

"Well, I'm terrible at both of those things. Do you think I should learn?"

"I don't know." Fry says. "Do you have to defend yourself much?"

"It's less defending myself and more defending other people, but yes. Yes I do."