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[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen, still dusty from the road, enters Milliways and leaves a note with Bar.

Cullen,

I'm back. Everything is fine. Not solved, but fine.

-- Ysalwen

Then she takes her tablet and a bowl of soup and settles at a corner table, poring through calculations and doing a last check of her simulations.

Maybe it's time to test out a new spell or two. Hmm.

Liranan, at her feet, busies himself with a deer haunch, occasionally emerging from beneath the table to nudge her arm so that she remembers to take a spoonful of soup.

He can do this all day. Or at least until the soup gets cold.

Comments

[yinyangwizard]

"Ysalwen! Liranan! Good evening to you!"

If Seimei startles Ysalwen this time, it's because she's buried in her work, not because he's using fox magic. For the record.

"As you can see, I am my usual self this time." Although he's wearing 21st-century clothes, which neither party has seen him in before.<sup>*

*</sup>[OOC: To the mun's recollection, anyway.]

[freedom_is_grey]

"There's something to be said for people that are always themselves," Ysalwen observes, more tired than sharp.

"Do you care to sit?"

[yinyangwizard]

"First, I have to make good on my word to Liranan," Seimei says. "Liranan, I promised you a special gift as an apology for what happened during Mardi Gras."

He reaches into his coat and pulls out a Kong toy. Large breed size, of course. It is filled with a mixture of peanut butter and kibble. And somehow, it's as cold as if it were just pulled from the refrigerator (helps keep the peanut butter together, you know). Seimei places it on the floor in front of Liranan before sitting down.

"What are you working on, if I may ask?"

Perhaps working a little too hard and too long on, by the looks of her.

[freedom_is_grey]

Liranan noses the Kong toy toward Ysalwen, who picks it up to inspect it -- and its contents.

Hmm.

"Spells. I'm thinking of trying something new, you know how that goes."

Or does he?

[yinyangwizard]

"It's just rubber on the outside, smooth peanut butter and kibble on the inside," Seimei says, pointing to the Kong.

"It does help to have something to build and modify spells on," Seimei says. "I have an application specifically for that purpose. Although if the Bar gave you that tablet...perhaps you do, too."

It might have all the same cybermagi-developed apps that Seimei's gadgets have.

[freedom_is_grey]

"I have what works for me," Ysalwen says, smiling crookedly.

"Though I have to ask -- why do you have to specify that the butter is smooth?"

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei shrugs. "Because there's also crunchy peanut butter, and the distinction is important. At least to me personally. I'm very particular about peanut butter."

He might be joking. He might not.

[freedom_is_grey]

"It's nice that you can afford to be."

She might be laughing.

(Or not.)

[yinyangwizard]

"I'm terribly spoiled," Seimei says with a grin. "Speaking of trying something new, how is the lucid dreaming going?"

If Ysalwen's been practicing, she should be able to do it pretty regularly by now. It will be a while yet before it becomes second nature, though.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"You look like you've had a long few weeks," Yamato remarks sympathetically as he approaches.

He has an apron on, and a cake in his hands, because baking is therapeutic and he needs that for his current status of Perpetually Slightly Vexed.

Gabumon follows, nose buried in a colouring book.

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen smiles up at him, quick and crooked.

"That's one way to put it. At least it's over for now."

Sort of over.

"Did you -- did you make that? The cake, I mean."

It's the apron that suggests he may have. Or he likes to eat cake while wearing aprons.

Ysa won't judge.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato would absolutely judge someone if they liked to put aprons on solely to eat cake, because that would be weird.

"Yes," he says. "It's - the kitchen was free. Usually it isn't."

He tilts his head a little. "What happened?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Who does the cooking, here? I don't think I've really ever seen many people going back and forth from kitchen to table. Except the rats."

Maybe there is a rat chef? It seems plausible.

"I'm -- attempting to convince a friend to come home. It's -- difficult. I'm not exactly surprised, I just. I suppose I hoped."

Ah well.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Mostly rats. I encountered a woman who was baking, as well, once, but she was doing it to make gifts for people. I think it's mostly just some very dedicated rats," Yamato says. "But either they don't like people getting in their way or they're just not keen on me getting in their way."

He frowns. "Do you mind if I ask what the story is behind him being away from home?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"You can ask. I -- think at this moment I'd rather not say?"

She doesn't quite bite her lip.

"Not specifically, anyway. Just. Have you ever been absolutely terrified of something? Or someone."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato pauses, rubbing the back of his neck. "Once or twice."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Imagine that moving into your home while the person meant to protect you is away."

Her mouth twists.

"And then taking command in her absence."

[heatherandsteel]

Quentin rolling his shoulders and dressed for sword practice when he enters and smiles when he sees Ysalwen, it fades a bit when he sees her concentration. As he approaches, he leans down to offer Liranan his hand and scritches but doesn't want to disturb important eating,

"Hello. Busy days?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Long days, anyway," Ysalwen says, looking up at him with a smile.

"Travel, as it happens. But I'm home now. Or close enough to it. How have you been?"

[heatherandsteel]

"Good, nothing too exciting. Was the travel for a nice reason?"

In his experience, it normally isn't, travel usually means something's wrong somewhere else.

[freedom_is_grey]

She stills, just for a second.

"I don't know yet. We'll see?"

[heatherandsteel]

He nods as that make sense, sometimes it takes time to know when something's worked or not, "I hope it works out."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Me, too."

She exhales.

"You look like you're about to go dueling. Are you?"

[heatherandsteel]

"No, sword practice with Sir Etienne. Dueling isn't that common where I am,"

He's read about some Fae that have dueled but it makes more sense to fight, fight.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Nor where I am, but other places on Thedas -- "

See: Antiva.

"Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Did you duck in here to buy yourself more time, or did Milliways decide you ought to come for a visit?"