Merida's First Tending

[boghadair]

There's a gust of wind which accompanies Merida through her door. With confidence, she enters Milliways and takes a look about herself. When she approaches bar for something to snack on, she's presented with a napkin.

"But how do I..." another napkin. "Well.

She adds the specials to the board with the elegant, practiced hand her mother's taught her to use:

Specials:
Chilled Mead
Ale
Wine
Water

Her mother would not approve of this; princesses likely do NOT tend magical bars. But she's not at home, nor under her mother's watchful eye. She'll have fun while she can.


[OOC: Open til the next tending!]

Comments

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric comes bouncing in from the door, bright loud dance music following. Dressed in cut-off shorts and a halter, he looks very much like a woman. With a bright grin, he comes dancing over to the bar. "Hello! May I have some water please?"

[boghadair]

Well, it's not music Merida's ever heard before. She raises her brows curiously at the sound, but follows the request quickly.

She retrieves fresh water quickly from beneath the bar - it comes fresh from the taps, and it takes Merida awhile to understand how to spin them and how to fill a glass with it. She eventually pours it into a tall mug, then sends it Sinric's way. "Let me know if you need it colder! Or bigger." They don't even have ice where she comes from; this is all a new revelation to her.

[thewidewideworld]

"Thank you kindly." Sin drinks most of it in one go. Dancing is thirsty work. "Another, if I may?" He hands back the mug.

[boghadair]

"Gladly!" She says. And after another is poured. "Are you as new as I am?"

[thewidewideworld]

Sin thanks her, sipping this one more slowly. "Alas no, I have been coming her for many years of my own time. But this is not my usual dress. A friend was kind enough to invite me to his world for a party. But you are most welcome if you are new. It is always a joy to make new friends." Something Sin has been doing all night.

[boghadair]

"Oh! That'd partially explain Sin's confidence and ease. "Well, there's no such thing as having too many friends!" she says.

[thewidewideworld]

"Just so." He smiles brightly. "My name is Sinric." He offers her a bow that's out of place in this outfit. "But Sin suits me better tonight."

[boghadair]

She instinctively bows right back, which at least proves this place hasn't evaporated all of her courtly manners. "Merida of Dunbroch," she says. "Oh aye? Sin? Didya scare a nun?"

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric's laugh is sweet and musical. "Not a nun, no. But several monks. I worry them quite a bit. Which is part of why I'm dressed like this. A very dear friend offered me a respite from a wearisome journey with some very austere company."

[boghadair]

"Oh!" Merida remarks. "...I'm guessing your austere company's enough to scare the nuns as well!"

[thewidewideworld]

"I couldn't say." Sinric chuckles. "I confess, I've never spent any time in the company of nuns. But I take it you have?"

[boghadair]

"Oh no," she says. "But I know they scare easily. You should've heard the noise at my brothers' baptisms!"

[thewidewideworld]

"I take it your brothers are something of a handful?"

[boghadair]

"If you could call little demons a handful," she says, wrinkling her nose. She loves all three of them, which is probably clear in her tone but oh, are they pains in her butt.

[thewidewideworld]

"But you love them. I understand. I had eleven brothers once. We were more trouble for each other than anyone else."

[boghadair]

"Eleven?!" Well -it's not an unheard of concept in the highlands to have so many siblings, especially when a king has to marry and re-marry. "Which of them were you closest to?"

[thewidewideworld]

"We were brothers by bond rather than birth." He explains. "We all belonged to the same man. But we were not less close for it."

"Probus." There's both fondness and sadness in his voice. "He was my right hand and closest to me in all things. We made a strong pair, both well schooled in the skills needed to serve. He was my equal in every art - music, song, dance, conversation. And we made a pretty match - he was a dark as I am pale. Night and day, silver and gold." He dips his eyes. "I miss him very much."

[boghadair]

"Oh! My clan's like that," she says. And though she's closest to her own blood relations, she adds, "there are so many people who aren't related by blood who'd be called family to us. I'm sorry," she adds quietly. She can be tactful, if the occasion calls for it. "Do your other friends come to this place?"

[thewidewideworld]

"Thank you." He dips his head in appreciation for her kindness. "Sadly no. The other Little Birds are all scattered now. One of our master's younger sons aided and hid them, when the eldest came to the throne. Leo would have murdered them all given the chance. But thanks to Niketas, all but Probus survived."

"I've only come across one of them in my travels - little Luka. It was strange to see him grown to manhood."

[boghadair]

"It's tough to watch 'em grow up," she admits. "My brothers are getting bigger all the time. It must be different when you're forced apart," she adds quickly.

[thewidewideworld]

"How old are they?" He asks curiously.

He shrugs. "I'm just glad to know they survived."

[boghadair]

She takes that statement with equanimity. "Just about two," she says. "Running like wee dervishes, and starting to get their words."

[thewidewideworld]

"Fast on their feet and always in trouble, I have no doubt." Sinric smiles.

[boghadair]

"They drive our nursemaid batty," says Merida. "They eat like a hoard of rats and bite twice as much!"

[thewidewideworld]

"They sound very wild indeed. Your family must be glad of the nursemaid's help?"

[boghadair]

"Maudie's wonderful!" Merida smiles broadly while thinking of her. "She's so nice even when my brothers aren't so nice to her."

[thewidewideworld]

"Saintly indeed." Sinric smiles. "It was lovely talking with you. And welcome."

[boghadair]

"You're quite welcome there yourself!" she says.

[OOC: and fade? Thank you so much for this thread!]

[thewidewideworld]

{ooc: thank you! That was very sweet.}

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal comes down from the residential corridors, a large duffel bag in one hand. Oil is spattered over his duty robes, and he smells faintly of gunpowder and cleaning solvents.

He sits himself down at the bar, and looks over to the redheaded woman currently on shift.

"Could I order a tankard of the chilled mead, please?"

[boghadair]

The scents are sharp enough to Merida's nose that she wrinkles it slightly; all unfamiliar scents to a woman who lives in a pre-industrial world.

"Aye!" she says. Merida's struggle with the taps lasts for a shorter period of time than it took to get water in a glass; soon there's a chilled, tall tankard filled with mead sitting in front of Sahaal.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal takes the tankard, sipping the mead through its head. It's a fair bit sweeter than he was expecting, but then he's used to bourbon and amasec.

"This is very nice, thank you."

[boghadair]

"You're welcome," she says, tilting her head. "I don't suppose you're from here, are ya?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal chuckles, and shakes his head.

"No. Where I'm from is very far away from here."

[boghadair]

"How far away?" Well, she had to ask.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"The Milky Way Galaxy, in the 42nd Millennium. I couldn't tell you far it is. I don't know. Entire universes away, I would suppose."

All Sahaal knows is that he can walk through the door and be back there in an instant. How far never entered into his thoughts until she asked.

[boghadair]

The answer is a bit boggling to her. "That's...very far away," she says. "I'm from Dunbroch. It's a lot more...stuck to the earth."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

He smirks. "Yes. Very far away."

"Dunbroch..." Sahaal tries the name on his tongue, getting a feel for the word. "Not somewhere I've ever heard of, but there's plenty of places I don't know about on the different Earths."

Although it sounds Northern Albian, up around the fortress-cities the Tenth Legion was recruited from.

[boghadair]

"Well, it's a rather big island - surrounded by other islands." Her mother's history lessons come back to her abruptly. "My dad's the king."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

One eyebrow arches in interest. "You're royalty, then. Strange. You don't look like a princess. Or act like one."

[boghadair]

She snorts. "You sound just like my mom. I never act like enough of a princess or a lady for her."